Restraints
by hardly loquacious
Summary: Patrick Jane had a plan, a good plan, until something he could have never predicted forced him to take desperate measures to ensure its success.
1. Prologue

A/N: Okay, so I've decided to write a J/L multiparter. It's actually an expansion of the final vignette in "Five Times Teresa Lisbon was Accosted by Kidnappers." It's an expansion that is slowly spiralling out of control actually. I thought I'd start posting it even though it's not done, because it is mostly planned, but I would like to emphasize that this was planned out before the S3 finale aired, so I take absolutely no responsibility for anything being no longer canon as a result.

It's going to be a mostly fluffy story, though the first two chapters (after the prologue) will be less so. But it'll pick up in tone after they're done.

xxxxx

Restraints

xxxxx

Prologue

xxxxxx

Patrick Jane hated lawyers.

He always had.

They caused nothing but trouble as far as he was concerned. Just left more problems in their wake than there were to begin with

Jane used to think that part of his dislike was because lawyers didn't tend to like _him_. He supposed his methods could make their lives a bit difficult sometimes so he didn't always blame them for that.

But it turned out, no.

Lawyers were just horrible, unwanted human beings, getting in the way, interfering, generally screwing things up, maybe even forcing his hand.

And despite what some of them might _think_, they weren't even that charming. It was really difficult to figure out why anyone might like one of their kind.

Stupid namby-pamby, generically handsome, really-too-tall, ridiculously bland, irritatingly good, shiny-teethed, lawyers who were friends of the assistant D.A.

Everything was all their fault. Fine. All _his_ fault.

Whatever his name was, the one who'd taken Lisbon out to dinner.

Oh, Jane had seen the two of them.

He'd been keeping an eye out for the pair of them, or something like them. Okay, not exactly for something like the two of them leaving together_,_ but for _something_. Lisbon had been oddly smiley all day, slightly nervous, maybe a little excited, definitely not completely at ease.

So obviously something was up. Jane had wanted (_needed_) to know what. It wasn't just inappropriate curiosity, though he was always curious about her. It was absolutely necessary that he know why Teresa Lisbon was so damn happy all of a sudden.

So he'd placed himself in strategic locations in the CBI building at strategic times.

That's when he saw them, _him_. In his neatly-pressed green shirt, and his perfectly styled dark hair, nearly the shade of Lisbon's own. Jane had a vague memory of being introduced to _him_ by the assistant DA the last time he'd been at city hall, but Jane hadn't given the man a second thought. Why should he have? The apparent newcomer to Sacramento was ordinary in the extreme.

Ridiculously stable, unbelievably average, probably perfectly _nice_. Nothing overt to arouse the consultant's interest at all.

Until Jane watched the man walk out of the CBI with Teresa Lisbon at his side, with their matching professional outfits, and their matching hair, and their matching smiles. Mr. Anonymous, J.D. was probably perfect for her on paper, kind, understood the demands of her job, dedicated to his own, probably also a bit of a workaholic, someone she could relax with, someone who didn't come with their own drama, _stable_.

Together they had made quite the picture, walking almost hand in hand.

Yes, the newcomer was exactly the type of person most people would think was perfect for Lisbon.

Patrick Jane wasn't _most_ people.

He _knew_ that Mr. Overly Safe _wasn't_ what she really needed. _He knew it_.

But he wasn't quite sure _she did_. Not anymore.

And now, as a result, he had a fuming Teresa Lisbon sitting in the passenger seat of his car.

Oh yeah, and she was handcuffed.

He may have panicked, just a little.

xxxxx

TBC


	2. Chapter 1

Somewhat overwhelmed by the response to my silly little bit of a prologue. Most of the story will be more like that in tone, but the first chapter and a half or so is slightly more serious. Just so you know. I'm setting things up. I felt it was necessary in my head.

xxxxx

Chapter 1

xxxxx

Of course, things hadn't exactly _started_ with him handcuffing Lisbon while she sitting in the passenger seat of his car.

They'd worked up to that more gradually. Okay, they hadn't actually been working towards _handcuffing_ exactly, but their relationship _had_ been changing subtly in the last year or so

At least, Jane had thought it had (and he'd assumed she'd noticed it too).

First they'd gotten closer, gotten to know each other.

They'd become good friends.

He'd realized he cared about her.

(He knew her better than that ninny of lawyer, that was for damn sure.)

He hadn't exactly moved quickly where their relationship was concerned. Neither of them had. They were both cautious by nature. And they'd had stuff, _important stuff_, to sort and deal through first.

All of that had to be resolved before the progress, before anything approaching balance could be achieved.

Oddly enough though, that journey _did_ start with a pair of handcuffs. Actually, it was the _same_ pair of handcuffs.

xxxxx

_Several months earlier_

x

Teresa Lisbon walked up the attic stairs, opened the door and slipped inside.

Jane smiled slightly when he heard her come in, but didn't get up.

Lisbon smirked, walked over, shifted his knees off to the side slightly and sat down next to him on his makeshift couch.

Jane started playing his usual game with himself, trying to guess how long it would take her to speak.

"Aren't you going to ask me what I'm doing up here?" Lisbon asked him eventually.

Almost four minutes. That nearing a new record for her. "Aren't you going to introduce a topic?" he countered. "I figured that since you came up here, you must have something to say to me, but you didn't even announce yourself."

She swatted him in the leg.

Jane noted that Lisbon hadn't removed her hand afterwards and it was resting just below his right knee. She was probably just using it for balance, he reasoned. She certainly didn't realize it was still there, and he wasn't about to bring it up.

She'd definitely move it then.

"Just wondered if you'd gotten anywhere with Red John, after the last case," Lisbon admitted.

Jane opened his eyes and raised his eyes at her. "You know I tell you things about Red John when I find them," he reminded her. He'd started telling her things one day, and just never stopped. Not after seeing what the results of that first desperate revelation had been. He'd been headed for prison, or at least disgrace and she'd simply stepped in and saved him, protected him. And she'd done it so effectively, so quickly, so logically (it would have never even _occurred _to Jane to simply walk into a room and punch a suspect in the face). Since then, he'd told her things. Not always right away, but eventually. (And over the years, _eventually_ had become 'sooner' rather than 'later.')

"Yeah," Lisbon admitted. "Pooling resources and all that."

"Plus you're useful, with all of your guns," Jane assured her.

"Oh, shut it," she said without malice.

Lisbon sighed. "I just thought, maybe you'd be on to something, something small. Or maybe you had an inkling, not something you'd fully thought out yet, and so you figured it wasn't worth walking all the way downstairs to share it," she said, her frustration at what felt like a near-continual lack of progress in the case was obvious.

Jane reached out for her hand.

The action seemed to surprise her.

"We're close now, Lisbon," he told her, his eyes suddenly focussed. "I can feel it."

"You've said that before," she said with trepidation.

"I know," he agreed. "But this time I don't think Red John knows how close we are. And that makes all the difference."

"You think?" Lisbon asked, her eyes a mixture of scepticism and hope.

"Now this is a change." Jane told her, pushing himself up into a sitting position. "Usually you're the one trying to keep me positive. What's going on?"

She sighed. "Nothing in particular. Sometimes it just feels like this case has been going on forever, you know? Oh god. That was stupid. _Of course _you..."

He squeezed her hand. "Stop," he ordered. "It's fine. It's been years. And I know I'm not the only person this has affected."

"Yeah," she said with another sigh.

"We'll get him, Lisbon," Jane assured her, in that same determined tone, the one that used to scare her, but that she'd somehow gotten used to over the course of their partnership. "I refuse to acknowledge any other possibility. One way or another, we'll get him."

Lisbon searched his eyes. "Okay," she said eventually. It was all she said. She wasn't in the mood to open discussion as to how they would 'get' the serial killer. They'd already had the conversation more times than either of them could count. Sometimes she thought they were getting somewhere, sometimes she thought they were right back where they started.

To her surprise, Jane almost smiled at her. "Now, are you over your doubts, or does this pep talk have to continue?"

She shoved him in the shoulder playfully.

He grinned at her.

His grin faded. "We'll get him Lisbon," he promised her again.

She closed her eyes. "I know," she admitted. She just hoped that when it was all _finally_ over, they were both able to enjoy it.

She stood regretfully. She'd like nothing more than to sit and chat with Jane about silly things (or even just _less serious_ things), but she had work to do. Work that couldn't be done lying about on couches, unlike some people.

Jane closed his eyes, trying to ignore his own disappointment when her hand finally slid off his knee.

"Oh," she said suddenly. "That reminds me, FBI Crime Lab called, said they were hoping to have the lab results from the last Red John crime scene early next week," she told him.

"So you did have something that you came up here to tell me," Jane smirked.

Lisbon smirked back. "Notice how the whole sharing information thing works?"

"Hey!" Jane objected.

She smirked. "Just kidding, Jane," she said. "Learn to take a joke."

"You've got a particularly odd brand of gallows-type humour going on sometimes, Lisbon," Jane murmured.

"How do you think I deal with you?" she asked him just before she ducked out the door.

How indeed, Jane wondered, allowing himself the luxury of a small smile before he turned his mind back to the latest Red John case.

She'd been right, at least in that he had been brooding over the last crime scene. Something was bothering him, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Yet.

She'd be the first person to know when he did figure it out.

Part of his brain still rebelled at the idea of telling her _anything_ (she could get in his way, she could get _hurt_), but the other part of his brain couldn't argue with the simple truth that they got so much further along when they... what had she called it? Pooled their resources.

And in the end, that was what mattered.

To both of them.

xxxxx

Jane was jittery, almost manic in the passenger seat as Lisbon sped through the streets of San Francisco.

She didn't try to talk. Didn't want the distraction.

Luckily he wasn't inclined to talk either.

There was nothing to say.

Wordlessly Lisbon pulled up to a sea of squad cars, threw the car in park and locked the doors before Jane could literally leap out.

It was just enough to distract him.

He turned to glare at her.

"Just listen to me for a second first, Jane," she said firmly. "It'll just take a second."

He nodded curtly.

"There's already a CBI unit in there from San Francisco. They were closer when the call came in so they've secured the perimeter. Plus there are some locals for backup as you can see, _and_ SWAT. And who knows who else. Everyone may be waiting for us to arrive before moving in, but I need you tell me that you understand what I'm saying," Lisbon said slowly.

Jane nodded again. He understood exactly what she was saying. No rushing in alone. No going for Red John himself. With all those people around there was no way she could prevent him from either getting killed or going to prison if he made an attempt on the serial killer's life. If he even got close enough to have the opportunity. "I understand," he said emotionlessly.

Lisbon leaned in to study him more closely.

Jane put his hand on the door handle, willing to give her one more second before he was gone. Willing to enjoy her closeness for another second.

"Good," she told him with a sigh. "And I'm sorry Jane."

He froze in momentary confusion, giving her all the opportunity she needed.

He heard the click of the handcuffs a split second too late.

He looked down in shock to see that she'd handcuffed him to the car door.

"I'm so very sorry, Jane," she told him again as she slipped out, checking her gun. "But I need to protect you."

He stared after her retreating form in shock, ignoring the curious looks from the rest of her team.

x

It took him nearly ten minutes to pick the lock on the handcuffs.

The first minute he wasted nearly bursting in silent fury. The next seven were spend trying to find something, anything, to jimmy the lock.

There hadn't been anything on the ground outside the SUV within grabbing range that was the right shape, and Jane had learned long ago that not just anything would do. In his distraction he'd forgotten his own lockpicks, and anyway, he hadn't thought he'd need them. As he'd started searching the SUV, he began to wonder if Lisbon had deliberately cleared her SUV of anything thin and metallic until he found the paper clip under the seat.

He'd just reached the door of the building when he heard the gunshots.

Jane managed to weave his way around the local police officers with relative ease only to find Lisbon close to the action, quietly re-holstering her gun; she obviously hadn't been the one to shoot.

Lisbon exhaled slowly when she saw him.

"SWAT had to fire," she explained. "Red John went a bit nuts when we wouldn't let him speak to you, seemed quite annoyed that he couldn't provoke you into showing yourself. He started waving a gun around, nearly took out a member of their team. They had no choice."

"What was he saying?" Jane asked hollowly.

"General taunts," Lisbon told him. "Describing how he killed your family," she it said as gently as possible, but Jane still flinched; there was no good way to say it after all. After a moment, Lisbon continued, "He described all the mistakes you made, we made really, over the course of the investigation. Several insults in my direction, including how he'd only kept me alive because I amused him, and if I'd stop cowering in the corner he'd rectify the situation. He was trying to draw you out into the open I expect."

But he hadn't been in the building, Jane thought to himself. He hadn't been _there_ to be drawn out. Which had been her plan all along.

"Where is he?" the consultant asked after a moment.

Lisbon hesitated, "Down there, but..."

"I need to see him," Jane snapped angrily, unsure if he was angry at her, or the serial killer, or the SWAT team for taking the shot. He turned abruptly and walked away from her; nothing was going to stop him from seeing this corpse.

Rigsby walked up to his boss. "How is he?" he murmured as they watched Jane go.

"I have no idea," Lisbon admitted.

"He'll come around," Rigsby promised her.

Lisbon shook her head slightly. "I hope so."

"Yeah," Rigsby agreed.

xxx

Jane stared down at the body on the floor in front of him.

He wasn't sure what he thought right now, but Red John was really dead. The man he'd first seen years ago at a cafe was dead. Though they'd crossed paths even before that.

He didn't even know how he felt about any of it.

If he felt anything.

He'd been so sure he'd feel something.

Now he wasn't even sure exactly what had happened.

Oh, he was sure he could find out eventually. Someone would tell him. But all of a sudden the little details didn't seem to matter. He, Patrick Jane, hadn't been the one to pull the trigger. The rest was trivial. Hell, maybe it all was. Just as long as Red John was _dead_.

Jane wasn't sure.

He heard her behind him. He knew it was her.

"He's dead," he said stupidly

"Yeah," Lisbon agreed.

"_Dead_, dead," Jane added.

She didn't reply. "I'm sorry you didn't get to..."

"No you're not," he interrupted bluntly.

She sighed and tried again. "I'm sorry you didn't get the closure you wanted."

"I don't know what I wanted," he admitted. "And I don't know what I have."

Though he knew she'd had no way of knowing that. He deliberately hadn't told her after all, at least the first part.

"Oh," Lisbon said, unable to conceal her surprise.

They stood there staring at the dead man.

Eventually Lisbon cleared her throat. "Jane?"

"Yeah?"

"They need to take the body," she said gently.

"Right," he mumbled, as he stepped aside to let the M.E.'s do their jobs.

"The team's getting ready to head back to Sacramento," Lisbon added. "You can ride with me, or if you'd rather go with Cho, I can take Rigsby..."

"I'll go with you," he replied abruptly. He wasn't sure he wanted to _talk_ to _her_ right at that moment; he shouldn't ever want to talk to her again (but he suspected he _would_, and soon). But Jane knew he sure as hell didn't want to talk to anyone else. He definitely didn't want to stick around an empty warehouse in San Francisco. There was nothing for him here. There was nothing for anyone here.

"Okay," she agreed.

He ignored the relief in her voice.

At least he tried to.

As they walked out Jane noticed for the first time the sheer number of law enforcement professionals milling about. He'd seen them before of course, but they hadn't really registered. All with their guns. Always with their guns. And sure, he had a gun in his pocket, but he hadn't been sure... he just hadn't been sure.

He'd accepted the fact that he might not get the chance to shoot at least a year ago. After he'd begun working more closely with his team on the Red John case. Jane'd realized that the price of moving faster in the direction of catching the psycho resulted in more people being involved.

He'd realized that this new, unexpected method didn't necessarily end up with him and Red John facing off, alone in an empty room.

He just hadn't told her that.

Because the face off had still been a possibility.

Just one that got less and less likely, each and every time he told her something.

And in the end he'd told her almost everything.

Because he needed her.

The two teammates got into the car in silence. Jane ignored the pair of handcuffs still resting on the seat which she retrieved as discretely as possible, re-clipping them to her belt.

He depended on her. And Red John had threatened her tonight. To get Jane to show himself.

Whatever Jane thought of his own (let's face it, near-perfect, or as close to it as possible) self control, if the madman had started talking about his wife, his daughter, and then Lisbon, Jane knew that he'd have lost it in a second. Lost it and done something stupid.

If he'd been that close to the serial killer he'd have had to make a choice.

With all those people watching. All those people around, to get hurt. Because he wouldn't have been thinking about protecting them, or himself.

He might have gotten himself in a situation where _she_ had to risk herself to save him.

A nightmare.

She'd prevented it. With a simple pair of handcuffs.

If she'd checked under her seats more carefully he'd probably never have left the vehicle at all.

Then Jane remembered once telling her that a safety pin was his favourite unofficial lock pick. That he used to practice with them for fun at the carnival.

"You left the pin under the seat deliberately," he said.

Lisbon sighed. "I... I... I thought if I could just delay you just long enough I could figure out what was going on, get things under control..."

"And you could stop me from running into the middle of what would certainly become a firefight if I got involved," Jane finished for her. "Red John would have ensured that."

"Once the ball got rolling on this I knew there'd be a bit of a crowd," Lisbon admitted. "Red John did too. I think he was hoping we'd all start shooting and take each other out."

"Very nicely played," Jane told her with just a hint of malice in his voice. "Very clever. The handcuffs were a particularly nice touch."

"It wasn't my intention to take anything from you," she told him. "Not anything you deserved at least. Although I know you probably feel like I did. But I couldn't let you..." she trailed off.

"Rush in and get myself killed," Jane surmised.

"Or get anyone else killed," she admitted.

"I can't guarantee that I wouldn't have," he admitted in return.

She sighed, "I know."

"But I also knew that there was a good chance there'd be a lot of people around today, whenever it happened," he added. "I've known it for a while."

He heard her sharp intake of breath. "What?"

"I guess I thought the possibility of an ending like this was worth it, as long as I got to see him dead," Jane murmured.

"And what do you think now?" Lisbon asked tentatively.

"I don't know," he admitted.

"Oh," she said sounding disappointed, but unsurprised. Then after a minute she continued. "I'm sure it'll take time..."

"I'm not angry at you for your decision, Lisbon," Jane told her quickly. "Even if the handcuffs were a little humiliating."

"All I could think of," she told him.

"Ah."

"I'm sorry," she whispered again. "I hope..."

"There was nothing else you could do," he said hollowly. "And there's nothing to forgive."

"Jane..."

"I'm not angry at you today," he added. "I'm not angry right _now_, but I don't know about tomorrow."

"Okay."

"We caught him, Lisbon," he said in the same emotionless voice. "That's all I know for sure right now."

"Okay."

"Thank you," he added in a whisper.

"Of course," she added just as quietly.

Neither of them spoke again for the rest of the drive.

xxxxx

Jane was still mostly silent when they got to the CBI.

He actually did mostly everything required of him. Not that much was required since he'd barely been at the scene.

He did decline to speak to a counsellor, or make an appointment with the psychologist, but no one pushed him on that.

In fact, Jane didn't say much of anything.

A quiet thank you when Lisbon pushed a mug of tea into his hands, a murmured "I'm fine," when Van Pelt asked.

Eventually he just slipped away.

Lisbon told herself that the fact that her consultant had actually told her that he was going was a good sign.

He'd even told her he'd talk to her later, after he'd cleared his head.

She tried not to worry too much.

xx

"How is he?" Hightower asked Rigsby soon after they'd returned to Sacramento, knowing that asking Lisbon would just cause further stress to the obviously already over-taxed woman.

"Quiet," Rigsby said softly.

"_Quiet?"_ Hightower asked in shock.

Rigsby's shrug was expressive.

The worry in it was mirrored on his boss's boss's face.

xx

Jane had just needed to get out of there.

He didn't know what to do. He didn't know what to do or what to say or what to feel.

He really had thought that after Red John had died everything would become clear.

Instead there was nothing.

Nothing at all.

He wanted to be angry at Lisbon. Hell, he'd _tried_ to make himself angry at Lisbon. Maybe just on principle. But he couldn't summon up the energy for it right now.

And why should he? What would it serve? Why should he even bother with the effort of it all? Red John was dead. That was sort of what he'd wanted.

Maybe he didn't know 'what now' because he'd always thought he'd be dead too.

He couldn't bring himself to be angry at Lisbon for that fact either. He didn't care.

Which was odd.

His family was still gone. They weren't coming back. This wouldn't bring them back. And killing Red John had never been about absolution, not for him.

More than anything he missed having a goal.

Now he had nothing.

Jane remembered the woman who'd been none-too subtly watching him all evening.

Maybe nothing wasn't true.

Not that he felt much about that one way or the other either.

xx

Lisbon had gone home not long after Jane had. There was nothing else that could be done that evening anyway. May as well try and get some sleep.

She'd probably just lie in bed.

Jane had actually been better than she'd been expecting. But the fact that he'd shut down and gone into some sort of shock didn't exactly bode well.

When her consultant finally woke up again she might be in for it.

Lisbon sighed. She hoped not.

She was getting ready for bed when she heard a quiet but insistent knocking on her door.

Padding across her living room in her pyjamas and checking the peephole, she managed to be both shocked while simultaneously somehow unsurprised by the man on the other side.

"Hi," she said with a gentle smile for her still-broken consultant. "You okay?"

"Can I come in," Jane mumbled, his eyes downcast.

"Of course," she agreed immediately stepping aside so he could enter. She could count the number of times Jane had been inside her apartment with both hands. Their relationship had centred around the CBI mainly because that's where they always were. And when they did other things together they were either grabbing a bite after a long day on a case, or maybe the odd other impromptu outing. They were rarely at home when they met. Neither of them were the type to host dinner parties after all.

Jane slipped past her silently.

"Can I get you anything?" Lisbon asked tentatively.

"No," Jane whispered. "I just... I..." He couldn't stay in his apartment. Like the warehouse in San Francisco, there was nothing there either. It was horribly empty. It positively echoed with emptiness. He was in no shape to drive to Malibu, and anyway, that would have been even worse. There was nothing for him in either of his houses. Motel rooms were completely anonymous. The CBI was too public, even the attic. That had only left her.

"It's fine," Lisbon assured him. "I was just getting ready for bed, but if you wanted me to stay..."

"No." Jane said again. He didn't want to talk to her. He wasn't ready to talk to her. He both craved and resented her. He walked over to her couch, lay down and closed his eyes.

There.

This was what he'd wanted.

He just hoped she'd understand (He just couldn't talk to her right now. He couldn't talk to anyone).

Lisbon did understand.

A minute later he felt a throw being tucked around him before he heard her walk upstairs to bed.

She wasn't surprised when he wasn't there when she came down the next morning, the only sign he'd been there at all the blanket was neatly folded on the back of the couch.

xxxxx

It was only 9:30 in the morning and Lisbon already felt lost.

Jane's disappearance from her apartment shouldn't have surprised her; it was long overdue really, but somehow... she'd hoped...

"Hi," she heard a voice from her doorway.

She looked up in surprise. "Hi!" she said in relief.

Jane walked in and sat across from her. "Thanks for the couch."

"Of course," she said dismissively.

"Madeleine thinks I should take some time off," Jane told her bluntly.

Lisbon closed her eyes briefly. At least he was telling her about it first, instead of just disappearing into thin air. "It's not a horrible idea. It could even be good for you."

"I thought I'd take a few days, maybe four," Jane explained neutrally. "Not including the weekend. Come back next Wednesday."

"Oh," Lisbon said, unsure of what else to say.

"Starting tomorrow obviously," Jane added.

Lisbon blinked at him. She hadn't expected the delay. She'd just expected him to be gone, to be all of a sudden unable to tolerate the CBI and its reminders. "You could start today," she offered tentatively.

"I don't want to." Jane said firmly. He didn't elaborate.

Lisbon exhaled, "Okay."

"I just wanted to let you know." Jane told her, offering her a little bit of an olive branch, still unsure what he thought of her.

"Thank you, Jane," she said sincerely.

Jane ran a hand through his hair, suddenly awkward. "I have a couple of meetings this morning, tying up..."

"Okay," Lisbon prompted when he trailed off.

Jane took breath. "Not for a while yet though."

"Right," she agreed.

"Can I wait in here?" he asked hopefully. He didn't want to wait in the bullpen, where people would gawk at him. Where they'd come by and ask questions and be concerned and... and a million other things.

"Sure," Lisbon said with a small smile.

Jane didn't really speak to her again. But _even_ after all of his meetings he was back on her couch where he could be found for the rest of the day.

xxx

Hightower didn't even bother to try and convince herself that she wasn't deliberately taking the long way around so that she could check in on the Serious Crimes Unit without appearing to check in on the Serious Crimes Unit.

She noticed everything seemed relatively quiet as she walked by.

She spotted Agent Rigsby by the coffee maker. "Morning Agent Hightower," he said when she walked in the room.

"Good morning Agent Rigsby," she replied politely.

Rigsby paused in pouring his drink when she didn't immediately continue on her way. "Can I get you some coffee?" he offered.

"No. I'm fine, thank you," Hightower assured him.

Rigsby smiled politely.

"How is everything?" she asked after a moment.

Rigsby raised his eyebrows, "Ma'am?"

She sighed and clarified her question. "How is _he_?"

Rigsby took a second to consider his answer. "Hovering," he said eventually.

"_Hovering?_" Hightower asked in surprise. It wasn't the answer she'd been expecting.

"Around Lisbon," Rigsby clarified. "He's hovering."

Which was still unexpected, though Hightower supposed it was better than what she _had_ been expecting, which was for Jane to shut down and refuse to have anything to do with any of them, _or _to take his anger out on anyone he felt responsible for what had happened, Lisbon in particular. "He saying anything?" she checked.

"Nope," Rigsby said with a shake of his head. "Though I don't think Lisbon's trying to talk."

"So he's just hovering?" Hightower repeated.

"Yeah," Rigsby nodded.

Hightower paused. "I don't know if that's good or bad," she admitted.

Rigsby shrugged. "It could be worse."

Hightower nodded. It still wasn't great. At least if Jane had gotten angry they'd _know _what he was thinking. She sighed, "On second thought, I think I might take you up on that coffee."

"I hear ya," Rigsby said, pouring her a cup.

xxx

Lisbon told herself she wasn't worried. There was no reason to be worried.

Jane taking six days off was actually sensible. Far more sensible a reaction than she'd been expecting.

He'd even kept in contact. Sent her a text message almost each day.

Thursday's had been, "At the beach."

Friday's had been, "Weather's terrible."

Lisbon had sent back relatively ordinary replies to those, but on Saturday she was the one to send the first text. It read, "Got a case. Will be out of the office. If you need me, use cell number."

Twenty minutes later her phone buzzed with Jane's reply, "As opposed to all those times that I tried to text your office phone?" She chuckled to herself and told herself that the humour was a good sign. Then her brain acknowledged that she might be reaching a little in her attempts to convince herself that Jane would get through this and be able to have a life post-Red John. She was in the middle of a mini-lecture telling her not to get her hopes up too high when her phone started vibrating a second time. "Good luck on the case... without me."

With that hope sparked up again before she could stop it. "Shut up. We'll be fine," she texted back. "Relax."

There was no reply, but Lisbon told herself she hadn't expected one.

There was a message on Sunday though, "Heading north for a change of pace."

Monday's was, "Case sounds like it's going slowly without me." Lisbon guessed he was watching the news media to keep an eye on things.

She couldn't resist sending him a quick reply. This time she risked voicemail. "Keeping tags on a case while on vacation Jane?" she teased. "And you call me a workaholic. Anyway, I hope you're, well, I hope you're getting what you need. If you need anything at all you know where to find me."

The reply took several hours, but it did come eventually. "Not my fault you made the news. Stop worrying."

She didn't have much luck with the second part of that.

Tuesday's text didn't come until midday either. It was, "Solve your case Lisbon, or you won't see me tomorrow."

Well, she _had_ solved her case, though it did end up being nearly seven at night by the time they finally got out of town. None of the team had wanted to stick around small-town California any longer than necessary. Lisbon refused to admit even to herself that she had an extra incentive to ensure she was back in the office bright and early Wednesday morning.

She still wasn't sure she'd see him though. And even if he was back, she had no idea what to expect.

xxx

"Morning boss!" Lisbon said cheerfully as she bustled past Madeleine Hightower at about 10:30 Wednesday morning.

"Morning Lisbon," Hightower replied, surprised by the Agent's unusually sunny smile.

Lisbon turned suddenly, something obviously just occurring to her. "Did you need me?" she checked.

"No," Hightower replied in confusion. "I'm just on my way to talk to Agent Lawson."

"Oh, okay then," Lisbon said as she positively strolled into her office.

"Did someone put something in her coffee today?" Hightower asked a passing Agent Rigsby.

He grinned. "Jane was lying on his couch reading a case file when she arrived this morning."

Hightower smirked. Of course. She should have known. "How is he?"

Rigsby grinned. "You saw Lisbon. She's already been over to kick his couch twice."

"Of course she has," Hightower said with a shake of her head. But she couldn't suppress a smile of her own.

xxx

TBC

P.S. Updates are not generally going to be this fast, but I wanted to make sure this section was half-sorted before I even considered posting the prologue. Still, I'm hoping to be reasonably reliable in my updating chapters.


	3. Chapter 2

Hi guys! Incurable romantic, party of one here, just so you know. Still no handcuffs, but have patience. And besides, the whole point of expanding the original vignette was to provide the backstory (and what happens afterwards, don't you fret.)

xxxxx

Chapter 2

xxxxx

Relationships were hard. They took work.

Especially between people who were private, and stubborn, and actually, just plain closed off.

It took _time_ to get close to someone like that. You couldn't just waltz in and plant yourself in the middle of their affections (though certain members of the legal profession seemed to want to _try_).

There was finesse involved.

It was one step forward, two steps back.

Jane knew that. He'd always known that.

He'd just gotten confused about that for a while, forgotten what mattered.

Luckily he wasn't a complete moron.

xxxxx

_Wednesday morning, several months earlier_

xx

Jane was back.

He was really back.

He was actually on the other side of the room, lying on his couch in the bullpen like it was just another day at the CBI.

Lisbon's grip tightened on her morning cup of coffee as she walked softly into the almost-empty bullpen (not _quite_ empty though, _not quite_, and that made all the difference). "Hi," she said softly, biting her lip to keep her smile under control. After all, who knew what was going through his head. "How are you?"

Jane turned towards her, "I'm well. But there's no need to look so surprised at my presence Lisbon," he told her. "I did say that I'd see you today. Since you did manage to solve your case yesterday."

"Hey!" she exclaimed. That case had been tricky.

"Although I admit, it is flattering that you're so obviously pleased to see me," Jane added, his eyes scanning her rapidly and repeatedly. He hadn't seen her in almost a week and he wasn't used to going so long without her. He was feeling the urge to remind himself of her little personal quirks.

"I..." Lisbon paused. She was pleased to see him, but she wasn't sure how to tell him that.

"Yes, Lisbon?" Jane asked.

She decided to just bite the bullet. "It _is_ good to see you," she admitted softly. "Because of, you know... After..."

"After what?" Jane asked in his most deliberately neutral tone.

"You know what," Lisbon replied in exasperation.

He acknowledged the point with a nod. "I do."

Lisbon figured one of them would have to bring up what had happened eventually. In his current mood it was unlikely to be Jane. "Did you want to talk about it?"

"Do _you_?" he countered.

She rolled her eyes. "I asked you first."

"And this isn't elementary school Lisbon," Jane replied patronizingly.

She sighed. "I just feel like maybe we _should_."

"Was there anything in particular you wanted to discuss?" Jane wondered. He could think of any number of conversations that they could be having, none of them particularly appealing.

"Well..." Lisbon hesitated.

"Exactly," Jane told her.

"Okay," she admitted shuffling slightly from side to side. "I don't know quite where to start. But Red John's dead."

"Yes he is," Jane agreed, the now-familiar mixture of anger and elation blossoming in his chest.

"And how do you feel about that?" Lisbon pressed.

"Ecstatic," Jane said bluntly. It was true. The sheer fact of the serial killer's death was enough to make him want to celebrate for a month.

"Jane..." Lisbon warned.

"What?" he asked her, irritated by her judgemental tone. "You're pleased too."

"Pleased is the wrong word," she told him. She was _glad_ the serial killer was dead, but it still seemed somehow wrong to say you were _pleased_ that someone had been shot. Oh, she would always count it as a win, a _big win_, but it didn't exactly give her pleasure. Satisfaction, pride, a general sense of having protected the public and made California a little safer. She was happy about all that, but it still seemed wrong to be so glad that a man had been shot through the forehead in a warehouse. Even if it was absolutely the right thing to do.

"Relieved then," Jane corrected, watching her face closely. "You would be even _more_ relieved the whole thing's over, except that you're still not sure about my mental state."

Lisbon felt herself getting exasperated. She always did when he made fun of her for worrying. "Oh for..."

"I told you not to worry Lisbon, though I acknowledge that I may as well tell the sun not to shine," Jane told her, a hint of affection creeping into in his tone.

"It's cloudy," she said dryly.

He smirked briefly. "Sun's still shining behind the clouds."

She sighed. "Fine. You win. We'll talk later. Or not at all. Just tell me if you're..."

"I don't know, Lisbon," he told her honestly.

"Oh," she said, trying to ignore the wave of disappointment washing over her. "Well, you're always welcome on this team, so whatever you decide..."

Jane sat up abruptly. "What are you talking about?"

She stared at him, hope temporarily renewed. "Weren't you..."

"I thought you were going to ask me if I was _doing_ _okay_ again," Jane clarified. "Not if I was _staying_. Which I thought I would. For the time being at least. What else am I going to do with my time?"

Lisbon frowned. "That's not exactly a ringing endorsement..."

He held her gaze and gave in slightly. "I'm not ready for any more change right now." He admitted.

She exhaled. Of course. That made sense. Jane was feeling a little lost. Well, she was more than willing to try and be there for him, if he'd let her. "Okay. If you need anything..."

"I still know where your office is," Jane assured her.

"Okay," Lisbon said one last time before turning to leave. "It's good to have you back."

He stopped her. "And Teresa?"

"Yeah?"

"You can let your smile free now," he assured her. "I won't be insulted."

"Shut up," she said immediately.

But she _was _grinning as she said it.

And her gait as she left was positively bouncing with pleasure.

Jane watched her go. It was good to see her. He was _happy_ to see her.

He hadn't been sure he would be.

The fact that he _was_, was a relief.

Smiling himself now, Jane settled deeper into the couch, _his_ couch.

xxxxx

They may have begun things positively (well, sort of), but that didn't mean things went perfectly smoothly between Agent and Consultant from that point on.

After all, the two of them were both stubborn and strong-willed, and it turned out Jane wasn't quite ready to forgive or to forget.

His irritation with Lisbon surfaced at unpredictable, and often unexpected, moments. Some days he was fine, things felt basically normal. Some days he found himself snapping at her, deliberately provoking her, arguing with her, frustrated by what he considered her stubborn and occasionally rigid insistence on procedure (which was still a bit of a sensitive subject). He picked fights with her. Sometimes Lisbon ignored him when he did it, shut down on him, didn't respond. Other times she snapped, got angry and the two of them had it out.

But even on the worst days she didn't leave him, though in hindsight he figured she might have come close more than once. He wondered if he'd been unconsciously trying to make her, trying to see how far she was willing to go, or maybe just to give him a more genuine reason to be angry with her. He didn't know. He just knew that he'd come close to losing control more than once and nearly tried to make her _leave._

But Lisbon never got _that _angry. He never pushed _that_ far.

And one day Jane finally realized that was a deliberate (though subconscious) decision on his part.

Lisbon was the closest friend he had. He cared about her. And he knew she cared about him. What's more, he _valued_ their relationship. It was why he'd started trusting her with Red John in the first place, why he'd started confiding in her, why he'd stuck to her afterwards, why he didn't actually want to get rid of her, even after what would maybe always feel just a little bit like a betrayal (though one he understood).

Annoyed and petulant as he was, Jane realized he wasn't anywhere near willing to toss a relationship a decade in the making out the window. Especially since Lisbon had just done what came naturally to her (and what she'd always threatened _to_ do).

And then one day, after he teased her about one of the security guards down at the court house who had a little bit of a crush and she smacked him in the arm with her file (just like she used to, _before_), Jane realized the most surprising thing of all: he wasn't angry with her anymore.

He might even be enjoying his life.

xxxxx

Lisbon was pouring herself that all-important first coffee of the day in the break room, mentally preparing herself for her day.

The problem was that she wasn't sure what she'd be mentally preparing herself _for_.

The last few weeks had been rocky, she wasn't going to lie. But she consoled herself with the fact that they could have been worse.

She'd never thought it would be easy.

And Jane (so far) hadn't crossed any lines there was no going back from, though sometimes she wondered.

She hadn't ever given up on him though. She didn't know why sometimes. The man was infuriating when he wanted to be. And he often wanted to be, particularly recently for obvious reasons.

But...

Yes, there it was, _but._

But a lot of things.

For one, Lisbon admitted that there may have been a (thankfully small) part of herself that felt like she deserved the way he was treating her. She'd handcuffed him to a car on the day he'd been working towards for the better part of a decade. Oh, it had been the _right_ thing to do, but that didn't make her feel 100% better about it; it just allowed her to sleep at night, and to hope.

Which was another thing, she wasn't always sure Jane was actually angry at _her_.

He was angry and frustrated in her direction, but Lisbon also suspected in his own direction as well. She'd seen something behind his eyes more than once, when he was at his worst, something that looked suspiciously like panic. She wasn't sure exactly what scared him, but she was unwilling to abandon him to face it alone.

Because he was her consultant. Because he used to be her friend, and she'd like him to be again.

Lisbon remembered how things were before Red John; Jane talked to her. She was the only one he talked to, and she'd talked to him back. She remembered being able to confide in him about her frustrations, her insecurities, her job. In hindsight, the fact that she had talked to him was almost shocking (she hadn't confided in anyone in _years_), but it hadn't felt in the slightest bit strange at the time. Talking to Patrick Jane had become the most natural thing in the world to Teresa Lisbon. Just like it had become natural to wander up to his attic for a coffee break, or let him drag her out for quick meals when she was working a case, or for her to find fresh fruit stashed all over her office.

And she knew that she'd give him more time, as much as he needed, if only she could have that back again.

The only thing that made Lisbon pause was that she wasn't always sure that was ever going to be possible. Maybe she'd destroyed the possibility of a genuine friendship when she'd taken steps to keep him safe. Maybe that was the price she'd have to pay.

But then, some days Jane would come into her office with a smile and a bear claw and she'd remember to hope.

Lisbon sighed, and wandered back to her office. After all, it'd taken years for her to achieve any sort of familiarity with Jane (or maybe it was more accurate to say that it had taken years for him to achieve any sort of familiarity with _her. _She could admit now that at the beginning of their relationship her walls had been far higher). And it hadn't even been two months since Red John's death.

Maybe she just needed some more patience, something the CBI agent acknowledged that she wasn't the best at.

Lisbon ducked in the door of her office and abruptly stopped walking.

There were flowers on her desk. Not a huge showy arrangement that was about two feet tall with flowers spilling out in all directions, but something smaller. Just a simple vase of irises mixed in with a bit of baby's breath and some sort of green, leafy thing.

There were flowers on her desk that hadn't been there ten minutes ago.

Talking a few steps forward, Lisbon plucked the card poking out of side of the vase and turned it over.

"Thank you," was all it said.

Lisbon felt her heart begin to race and she bit her lip. There was only one person who would buy her this, only one person who would wait until she left to sneak it into her office, only one person who'd even _consider_ buying her flowers, and he... and he...

And he'd just walked into her office behind her.

"Morning Lisbon,' Jane said softly as he shut the door.

Lisbon sniffed. "Morning," she managed to whisper in what sounded like a semi-normal sort of a voice.

Jane walked closer and Lisbon felt him brush a couple fingers across the back of her arm. She turned her head slightly to look up at him, her eyes half-hidden beneath rapidly blinking eyelids. "They're from you?" she double-checked.

"They're from me," Jane promised, his eyes latching on to the hope in hers like a lifeline. He realized then how much she _wanted_ the flowers to be from him, how much that meant to her, maybe even how much _he_ meant to her.

Jane watched her swallow thickly and hold up his card. "What for?" she asked.

He shrugged and stepped closer. "For everything," he admitted.

"Oh," she exhaled.

"Lisbon," he told her as he reached for her hand. "I..." he wasn't sure exactly what to say and so settled for threading his fingers through hers.

She turned away suddenly and so Jane felt compelled to speak.

"I know I haven't been the easiest person to live with this last little while," he started to explain, feeling her fingers twitch against his as she shook her head. "And I know things haven't been the best."

"S'okay," she said thickly.

He smiled affectionately. "I know you think it is, and maybe that's true. I don't know. But a funny thing happened to me this morning Lisbon. Do you know what that is?" he asked gently, trying to get a better look at her eyes.

She shook her head again, not quite sure how to deal with the emotions welling up and threatening to overwhelm her. She hadn't been expecting this, not at all, and she felt unprepared, exposed. She'd hoped things were getting better between the two of them, but she'd never dared to dream that...

"I felt happy," Jane told her, taking the leap.

Lisbon did look at him then, the hope shining through green tear-filled eyes nearly knocking him through a loop.

Without thinking he pulled her against him. "It felt _good_ Lisbon," he whispered. "And I realized I was sick of sniping with you over things that were stupid. And I know that you haven't been having the easiest few months either, and I... Hey, it's okay," he added when he saw her shoulders shake, and one stray tear overflow down her cheek.

She let herself lean against his shoulder. "I know," she sniffled. "I just... I wasn't expecting..."

"Neither was I, to be honest," Jane told her candidly.

His sudden cheerfulness made her laugh, and she stood back up, quickly wiping her eyes. "Must be the first thing you haven't seen coming," she said dryly. "That you admit to at least."

He smiled back.

Lisbon glanced back at her flowers. "They're beautiful, Jane," she told him. "Thank you."

"Thank _you_," he told her sincerely, gripping her shoulders and looking her straight on in the eyes.

"Are you sure?" she whispered.

Her doubts would have irritated him had they come from anyone else, but this was his Lisbon, sceptical, untrusting, wonderful. Besides, he'd expected them (he'd have been worried if they _hadn't_ come). "I am," he assured her. "I'm not sure I'll every completely agree with the way things ended up happening. I mean, I'm not sure it'll ever be exactly what I wanted, but now I feel... I feel like I'll be okay."

"That's great Jane," Lisbon told him sincerely.

"Thank you, Teresa," he told her one more time.

She took a breath and forced herself to meet his eyes, forced herself to acknowledge his sincerity (and the fact that this was actually happening). "You're welcome," she whispered.

Jane beamed at her.

xxxxx

After that things started to even out a little bit more.

There was certainly less sniping between Agent and Consultant.

Jane started enjoying his job again, finding the fun in poking and prodding the arrogant and the guilty. Lisbon even let herself relax a little, when it became clearer and clearer that he wasn't one step away from plunging off the edge.

And they started finding their feet with their friendship for the second.

Except that it was a bit different this time around, without the spectre of the serial killer lurking in the background.

The closeness they'd had before crept back quickly along with the subtle affection, but that wasn't all it was.

They started doing things together. Innocent things, but things nonetheless. And significantly, things outside of work.

More than they ever had before.

xx

"Lisbon!" Jane said cheerfully as he ambled into her office. "What are your plans this fine evening?"

She glanced up at him from her laptop. "I dunno," she shrugged. "Finishing the reviews for the personnel department then going home and watching old sitcom reruns? Why?"

"Because you're not doing any of that," Jane told her gleefully.

Lisbon groaned. "Please tell me that you're not dragging me out for some insane stakeout for a ten-year old cold case like you did last week!"

Jane pouted. "Okay, first of all," he said, "We caught the guy."

"He was innocent!" Lisbon reminded her consultant.

"Well, yes," Jane agreed. "But we were able to rule him out as a suspect. And I'm still confident I can find the real killer. I just need to think of a new plan. I'm missing something."

"You sure are," Lisbon said dryly.

Jane shot her a look before remembering why he'd originally come into her office. "Anyway," he said. "That's not the point. I promise I have nothing stake-out related in mind tonight."

Lisbon stared at him. "Then please tell me you're not going to suggest spying on Cho again."

Jane grinned. "No, not after you nearly gave us away with your giggling last time."

Lisbon smirked. "You were no better!" she said, remembering Jane's running commentary of the proceedings in her left ear. "And besides, I couldn't resist. I never thought I'd see Cho taking dancing lessons!"

Jane shook his head. "You underestimate him. And he does love Elise."

"Apparently," Lisbon agreed. "Still, I'd rather not spend my evening crammed in a cloak room, or behind some large piece of furniture."

"Ye of little faith," Jane scolded. "Actually I had something a little simpler in mind."

"And what's that?" she asked.

Jane smiled. "The Empire's airing Casablanca tonight."

Lisbon's eyes widened. "I really should do some work," she said softly.

"Nonsense," Jane told her with a wave of his hand.

"I've _seen_ Casablanca," she explained, trying to justify her decision.

Jane rolled his eyes. "Lisbon, _everybody's_ seen Casablanca. That's not the point. And have you seen it on the big screen?"

"No," Lisbon admitted.

"Excellent," Jane told her. "I'll pick you up at eight-thirty. That way you can work through dinner, and then afterwards you can go to the movie without worrying about your unfinished paperwork."

"Jane..."

"It's only playing for a few days, Lisbon," Jane told her. "And you may never get an opportunity. Please don't make me go alone."

Lisbon tapped her pencil against her desk. She really did _want_ to go. And sometimes it felt like she _always_ worked late. She glanced at her watch and bit her lip.

"What?" Jane asked her curiously, though he suspected he knew why she was hesitating.

Lisbon looked up at him hopefully. "Isn't there a falafel place right next to the Empire?" she asked.

Jane's smile grew two sizes. "Yes," he confirmed slyly. "Why?"

She drummed her fingers on her desk. "Well, it doesn't really make sense for me to bother going home to have dinner, and then coming all the way back to go to the movie, especially if I'm just grabbing something while reading this crap..."

"No, it doesn't," Jane murmured in easy agreement.

"And I worked through dinner yesterday," Lisbon added, really starting to talk herself into doing what she wanted.

Jane sighed. "I thought you were going home early yesterday?"

"I did!" Lisbon justified. "Then I remembered something in my briefcase that really should have gotten done and I was just heating up leftovers anyway and..."

Jane sighed. "Okay, that's it, I'll let you work for, another hour," he told her. "And then I'm coming and dragging you out of here and we're going and getting falafels. And you are going to sit down at an actual table and eat like a normal person. And your meal is going to actually be balanced because you are getting some sort of salad..."

"My meal last night was balanced," Lisbon insisted. "Just because it was quick and convenient..."

"Fine, fresh than," Jane corrected.

"And I want popcorn," Lisbon murmured.

"Well, they do sell that at the movie theatre, so I'm sure that won't be a problem," Jane assured her with an indulgent smile.

Lisbon nodded, ignoring him. "Oh wait!" she said suddenly. "This is the black and white Casablanca right? They're not airing one of the stupid colourized versions are they?"

Jane looked scandalized at the mere idea. "As if I would bring you to a _colourized_ Casablanca," he said scornfully.

Lisbon smirked. "Sorry."

"You should be," her consultant muttered.

"Okay," she said. "If we're going I've really got to finish at least this file, so go."

"One hour," Jane warned her as he ducked out.

She just waved a dismissive hand in his direction.

xx

But Lisbon _was_ more or less ready to go in an hour. She even graciously allowed Jane to drive her to the restaurant. She was also really looking forward to the movie, though she wasn't quite admitting to herself how much.

The pair of them did have a great time though. She paid for dinner, he bought the movie tickets and the popcorn.

And Lisbon let herself relax.

Jane may have helped. He made her laugh at least.

She couldn't help thinking about how much better it was to spend the odd evening going out with a friend rather than simply collapsing on her couch with yet another one of her endless supply of files.

And then there was the movie. 

Teresa Lisbon _loved_ Casablanca. It had always been one of her favourites.

She knew it wasn't a very original choice, but it was true.

And Jane was right, seeing it on the big screen was pretty special; there was just something about it.

She felt herself sighing and sniffling at all her favourite parts despite the fact that she had the whole thing basically memorized.

Jane turned to her at the end, taking in the shining eyes and wistful grin. "I knew you loved this movie."

"I told you," she murmured gently. "Everybody loves this movie."

"No," Jane shook his head. "You_ really_ love this movie."

Lisbon ducked her head. "Yeah," she admitted. "It's not a happy ending exactly, but it's the right ending you know?"

"Duty wins out over personal happiness," Jane said. "I should have known."

"Hey!"

"Not a criticism, Dear," he assured her. "Just an observation."

"Hmm."

"You don't think you can have both?" he asked.

Lisbon paused, considered the state of her love life, or even just her personal life. "I don't know," she said after a minute. "I'm happy. I like my job. I have the team. I... I am happy Jane. I know it's not typical."

"It's okay," he soothed. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you."

"I'm not upset," she said with a shake of her head.

Jane stared at her a minute, trying to decide if he believed her. Apparently he did because he didn't argue, "I had a good night tonight, Lisbon."

"Yeah," she agreed.

"See what happens when you get out of the office occasionally?" he teased.

"Shut up," she said swatting him in the arm. "And drive me back to my car."

"Yes ma'am," he agreed, dropping the same arm she'd just assaulted casually around her shoulders.

xx

Not only were they gradually starting to spend more time together, but Jane was touching her more.

Not in an overt way obviously.

It was so subtle, Lisbon didn't even notice it at first. And the touches _were_ completely innocent. Jane started using her watch to check the time again, something he'd done before, but hadn't in months.

He held doors open for her and then put his hand on the small of her back to usher her through them.

When she got an arm caught in her jacket Jane was immediately by her side helping her straighten it.

He brushed her hair out of her face when both her hands were occupied trying to fix the stupid CBI coffee maker.

He sometimes swept a hand across her knee when they were seated opposite each other in the attic, a space he still claimed as his own.

Once he even pulled her into an impromptu dance when their case brought them to a banquet hall, reminding her of a similar dance years before.

It was all perfectly friendly of course. Lisbon was sure he didn't mean anything by it.

But whenever it happened, whenever Jane's hand strayed to her shoulder blade, whenever he smiled at her with eyes twinkling with a mirth and a touch of pain that was slowly seeping away, she got an unexpected reminder of just how handsome he was. When she had the Patrick Jane charm turned on her at full blast, Lisbon remembered how hard she'd had to work when she'd first met him not to let it sway her.

She'd always been a little attracted to him.

There, she admitted it (at least to herself).

Not that it mattered really; she was too busy being glad of their friendship to give the other more than a passing thought. Even if there was a latent attraction between them (perfectly understandable, given how closely they worked), Jane would never act on it either.

Still, even though it had the potential to make things awkward, Lisbon was pleased that Jane might be feeling _any_ kind of physical attraction. It did tend to imply that he genuinely _was_ healing.

xxxxx

Jane settled onto his couch, pleased with his life (not something he'd ever really expected to be again).

Red John was dead, and he was still with the CBI. Sill with his team. Or rather, her team. The team he was a part of.

He thought back to the shaky period, right after the serial killer's death, when he'd deliberately provoked his boss. It was a good thing he'd had the good sense not to push too far, and that she'd had the good sense not to react.

Think of what he could have lost.

Teresa Lisbon.

He was sure _Agent_ Lisbon would have always stayed professional, but Lisbon herself, that was a different story. He could have lost her.

The woman he most enjoyed spending his free evenings with (it had become a challenge trying to think up things to coax her out of her office).

The woman whose company he enjoyed more than anyone else's.

Not to mention, as an added benefit, she was certainly easy on the eyes.

And had a wicked sense of humour.

It made him smile just thinking about it.

Maybe next time they went to the movies he should take her to a comedy.

His best friend.

Thank goodness he hadn't done anything _stupid_ half a year ago.

Then it dawned on him; Jane started to realize that the reason he'd been so disinclined to push Lisbon away hadn't been because she was his _friend_.

He noticed one day, when they were out walking down the street one Saturday morning in Sacramento on their way to the farmer's market, the one he'd spent weeks convincing her was the place she really _should_ be buying her produce, that Lisbon was stunningly gorgeous.

Also, her hair was particularly lovely that day.

And the curve of her collar bone when she tilted her neck just so.

Plus, he was fond of the purposeful way she walked. He could always pick her out of a crowd, even at a distance.

Best of all though was her smile. When she smirked up at him with her head tilted to the side and her eyes laughing at him sideways.

Although, when she met his eyes, her eyes twinkling right at him were pretty great too.

Really, the woman had such wonderfully expressive facial expressions.

So very attractive.

Lisbon was subtly gorgeous, attractive in a way that wasn't always immediately obvious.

But _he'd_ noticed. He'd definitely noticed.

The realization hit Jane like a load of bricks.

He didn't just find her attractive, in a clinical, "Well, yes she's gorgeous, how could I _not_ have noticed," kind of a way.

He was attracted _to_ her.

He'd always been aware that she was beautiful of course. He had eyes and it was difficult to miss. But he'd always acknowledged it in a sort of an abstract kind of a way. Objectively Lisbon was lovely. It had never mattered to him one way or the other, not personally, not other than making his day a little better because she was so pleasant to look at.

Now it _did_ matter, quite a bit.

And rather than terrifying him, Jane found that fact suddenly sweet against his tongue.

He'd need to consider it some more of course, but that didn't stop him from sending her a blinding smile when she glanced his way, enjoying her bemused look in return.

He _wanted_ her.

Not only that, he was _allowed_ to want her now.

It was thrilling.

xxxxx

Then that ludicrous lawyer had just _appeared_. Completely unwanted.

Jane scowled.

Mr. Perfect, J.D. thought he could just waltz in, just like that.

Apparently he'd taken Lisbon to dinner in a sports bar. _A sports bar._

And yeah, okay, Lisbon liked sports. And she liked beer. And nachos and the like.

_But_, she got enough of that sort of thing, that type of casual, buddy-buddy, almost masculine, world on the job. Didn't the fool know that Teresa Lisbon deserved something more? Something different? Something _special_?

Jane bet Mr. So-In-Synch-With-Lisbon-We-Probably-Cheer-for-the-Same-Damn-Sports-Teams didn't have a romantic bone in his body. Probably thought pizza and wings was as good as it needed to get.

Idiot probably hadn't even _seen_ Casablanca. He looked like the type to refuse to watch anything that wasn't filmed in colour. Oh god. Maybe he _had_ seen it. Maybe he'd seen the _colourized version_.

Lisbon couldn't form a serious attachment to a man like that.

It just wasn't _right_.

Clearly Jane needed to come up with a plan to fix this. And quickly.

xxxxx

TBC

P.S. I am hoping to get to the handcuffs at the end of the next one.


	4. Chapter 3

Okay, so I'm a bit behind on my review replies, but I figured people would appreciate it more if I posted the next chapter of the story first and replied to the reviews afterwards. I'm still a bit overwhelmed by the response to this little bit of fluffiness. Glad everyone's liking it though, and I always love hearing what people think. So thanks for that. And, as always, thanks to the anonymous reviewers who I can't thank individually.

Also, got to say, much as I'm enjoying coming up with the stupid names for Jane to call the namby-pamby lawyer, I'm glad that section of the fic is almost done, because it's becoming a bit of a challenge to come up with new ones, enjoyable a challenge as it is.

Anyway, here it is, the next part. It's kind of the one where most of the backstory I had planned out in my head originally really gets set up. Hope you enjoy it!

xxxxx

Chapter 3

xxxxx

Jane knew it looked bad. Knew it looked like he'd only decided he'd wanted Lisbon _after _another man showed any interest in her. The consultant _knew_ it looked like sheer possessiveness on his part. And mean-spirited possessiveness at that, given that if that's all it was, he was potentially screwing up what could be a meaningful relationship for Lisbon.

After all, he had only acted overtly _after _she started getting other male attention, at which point Jane had seen fit to go and kidnapped her. Against her will. (Though he hoped that wouldn't be for long).

Still, it wasn't as bad as it looked. Because even though Jane had only approached Lisbon herself _after_ her date with the loser lawyer, the consultant _had_ started to act earlier. Just not directly, and nobody knew about it yet. Though Jane was planning on telling Lisbon. That was the _point_. He wasn't quite sure how to do it at the moment, since he was still kind of winging it. But hopefully he'd figure it out along the way.

The problem was, everything wasn't quite ready. He'd wanted it all to be perfect. But it was too late for that now.

It would have been ready in a week or two.

But Jane couldn't afford to wait any longer.

_Stupid lawyer._

And now, instead of being charmed and curious, Lisbon was glaring at him like she wanted to kill him.

All in all, not quite the beginning he'd been hoping for.

xxxxx

_A few months earlier_

xx

Jane spent a few weeks turning the idea of being attracted to Lisbon over in his mind, getting used to it.

He found he quite liked it. Liked the hum in his blood whenever she walked into a room or he heard her voice in the distance.

He liked the warmth that spread through his chest when she smiled at him and he liked finding little excuses to touch her, to be as near as possible.

He especially liked the times that she allowed herself relax around him, liked that she clearly valued their friendship.

He liked that she was so very concerned about him and his health and well-being, was always checking in, wanted to make sure he was doing alright, that his mental state was good. She was always so happy when he did even the smallest little thing that confirmed he wasn't only brooding over the past.

And he wasn't. He'd certainly never forget his family; that would be unforgiveable. But he had started to consider whether or not he could move on, and what that might entail.

He thought about his big empty Malibu house with a bloody smiley face on the wall.

He thought about a graveyard he almost never visited.

He thought about the anonymous hotel room he lived in.

He thought about transferring his wedding ring to his vest pocket.

And he realized he needed to make some decisions.

He spent a weekend in Malibu, going room to room, trying to decide what he felt. There were ghosts everywhere, some happy, some sad. But like the graveyard, his family wasn't there anymore. The house wasn't a monument to their lives, but to the serial killer who'd taken them.

Jane decided that Red John didn't deserve that position of importance in anyone's life. The sooner his name faded into obscurity and he was just a half-forgotten nightmare, the better.

And Jane had always told himself that he'd try to move on after the serial killer was dead.

So, after a week of soul-searching Jane bought a bucket of white paint and some heavy duty household cleaner.

And he started scanning the Sacramento real estate listings.

Not that he told Lisbon any of this; he wanted it to be a surprise. And since they rarely went to each other's places of residence (he really couldn't call his motel room anything more than that), it was an easy secret to keep.

Jane found a little bungalow not far from the CBI building. It was in his price range, a little worn down maybe, but it had potential. It just needed a little work.

And Jane loved it from the second he walked through the door. Even if the living room was a bit small and the appliances were ancient. But between the big master bedroom and the overgrown garden in the back, he was sold.

For some reason the idea of his own garden appealed to the consultant.

So he made an offer on the house.

Of course, keeping two houses was impractical. Especially if one was basically empty, and too far away for him to visit, and full of ghosts.

So after another stressful two weeks Jane let a real estate agent stick a For Sale sign on the lawn of the Malibu house.

Because he refused to be defined by a serial killer any longer.

And he repeated that to himself every time he felt panic begin to flutter in his chest.

He had a plan you see. He'd get his little bungalow all fixed up, just the way he wanted it. Then he'd tell Lisbon he had a surprise for her, and he'd cajole her into coming on a drive with him, and he'd bring her there, and show it to her. She'd be confused at first, then tentatively pleased, even hopeful. And when she looked her most shocked, that's when he'd casually mention that he'd sold the Malibu house (the one Lisbon knew about, but never mentioned). Then he'd get to watch her eyes light up as she put two and two together and realized what he was trying to tell her.

That he was genuinely ready to move on and try to be happy.

And after that they'd have a lovely dinner (which he'd cook, of course; he already had a tentative menu planned, all her favourites). And he'd explain all about how he thought he was ready to try and have some sort of normal-ish life, one that wasn't centred on vengeance.

He could practically see Lisbon's eyes shining across the table from him; she'd be so happy.

Of course, Jane also figured it would probably take a little longer to hint around at the possibility of exactly _who_ he might be ready to move on _with_. Maybe another week or two. After all, Lisbon might not be easily convinced, if she believed him at all. That was okay though; Jane was perfectly happy to give her a little bit of time. He'd have had more time to get used to the idea after all.

And Jane was fairly certain that Lisbon was at least physically attracted to him. The two of them had chemistry. That was obvious. Plus, Lisbon cared about his well being and enjoyed his company. So a relationship wasn't as far-fetched as it might sound to some.

Jane went to work industriously. Painting rooms and picking out furniture (he'd forgotten how much he _liked_ picking out furniture), buying new appliances and renovating the kitchen cabinets (they'd really been hopelessly out of date). The small half-bath in the basement desperately needed to be re-done, but the plumber couldn't start that until the following week. And Jane really needed to do something about the carpet in the back hall. He was pretty sure the left back corner was permanently stained with something or other. Plus the garden was still a bit of a disaster, though he'd at least cleared out some of the excess plant material. He figured it wouldn't be longer than three weeks to finish it all, a month at most.

Then his surprise would be perfect (and he really was looking forward to see her face when he showed her).

His only error had been in assuming he'd have that time.

xxxxx

Teresa Lisbon was smiling to herself.

And why shouldn't she be?

She'd had dinner the evening before with an interesting man. Not only was he interesting, but he was handsome too, and apparently he was interested in her.

Admittedly there hadn't been anything earth-shattering between the two of them, but it was far from the worst date she'd ever had. Lisbon wouldn't say no to a repeat. She didn't think she would at least.

Her friend Suzanne who worked at the DAs had introduced them. The two women had struck up a friendship not long after she joined the DA's office two years earlier. Lisbon wasn't sure if the friendship was due to the fact that Suzanne was one of the few attorneys who didn't hate Jane outright and Lisbon had simply latched onto the possibility of a much-needed ally with the DA, or because Suze was a fellow Chicago transplant and nearly as big a hockey fan as Lisbon herself. Either way, the two women had bonded. Suzanne was periodically trying to drag Lisbon out of the office. Apparently Suze shared Jane's opinion of Lisbon's personal life and thought that she was spending far more time than necessary hunched over files or watching silly television shows.

So Suzanne had decided to play matchmaker and introduced Lisbon to another new lawyer in town. He specialized in property law, was apparently a big hockey fan, and didn't really know anyone in Sacramento and happy to meet new people, especially if they happened to be fabulous and beautiful single women (Suzanne's words, not Lisbon's).

So, after an introduction and a few brief meetings around the courthouse, Lisbon had let herself be manoeuvred into a dinner date.

And it had been nice.

She knew that wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement, but it was the truth.

The conversation had been generally good (even if the ins and outs of declaring bankruptcy had come up more often than strictly necessary in Lisbon's opinion), the food had been decent, and the evening even included watching basketball on the big screen. The good night kiss had been serviceable, nothing special, but certainly not repulsive or anything.

There was potential there, even if there hadn't been fireworks.

Lisbon wasn't looking for fireworks anyway.

She was in her late thirties after all, and she was far more likely to spend her evenings in her office than out, meeting people.

Going out with a sensible, kind, intelligent, good-looking man was a welcome change.

The fact that she'd had more fun the night Jane had dragged her to Casablanca was irrelevant (as was the fact that Jaen had nicer eyes).

For one, she and Jane had known each other for years. _Of course_, the consultant knew her better than a man she'd spent a grand total of six hours with. _Of course_ she was more comfortable in Jane's company. And if his sense of humour was a little better, well, he was also far more unpredictable, less safe. Lisbon ignored the part of her brain which pointed out that meant that Patrick Jane was also more fun. Because it didn't really didn't matter.

Which brought her to reason number two (the more important reason) that Jane was an unfair comparison to any other male in her life: she and Jane were just friends. They were _good _friends, and their friendship was important to her, but there was nothing romantic about it. Okay, Lisbon admitted that she was attracted to her consultant, _sometimes_. And she also admitted that sometimes she wondered if Jane was attracted to her back. But even if he _was_, it was irrelevant, because Jane was basically living a celibate lifestyle. Lisbon knew that he was still dealing with what had happened with Red John, and though he was coming to terms slowly, and sometimes appeared to be attracted to other women, he never made any kind of a move in their direction. Lisbon had watched beautiful women throw themselves at his head more than once over the years. Jane either didn't appear to notice (and so ignored it), or, more commonly, used Lisbon herself as an excuse to decline any overtures. Not exactly the picture of a man looking for love in his life.

Anyway, the idea of she and Jane dating was ludicrous. They'd be arguing with each other and provoking each other all the time. (Lisbon conveniently ignored the fact that their arguments were very rarely serious, and _were_ definitely interesting.)

But ludicrous or not, Jane was the dominant male presence in her life, and so she couldn't help comparing her date to him.

The lawyer came up lacking, but by no means receiving a failing grade.

So she probably would agree to another date, if he called.

Besides, Lisbon wasn't looking for a serious relationship at the moment. Probably didn't have time for one. But she could probably manage a bit of casual dating. Seeing him again wasn't out of the cards, even if they did just end up friends.

Quite content with her decision, Lisbon settled back into her desk chair. She glanced up in time to see Jane skulk past her office, again.

She frowned.

Her consultant had been acting oddly all day.

She hoped nothing was wrong; Jane had been making such good progress lately. She'd finally stopped worrying that he'd suddenly have some sort of Red John-related issue, or that he'd decide he was going to leave the CBI, now that he was mentally... stable.

Lisbon tapped a pen on her desk for a few seconds, before deciding that she needed a coffee refill.

xxxxx

Jane waited for the kettle to boil mulishly.

Lisbon was unbearably smug that morning.

And he knew why.

He'd watched her leave the CBI building with that generically handsome lawyer of hers, the one her friend Suzanne had introduced her to. And to think, Jane had actually _liked_ Suzanne. Up until _now _she'd been one of the few ADAs Jane could even tolerate. Guess it just goes to show, never trust a lawyer. Any lawyer. Turn your back for a second and they stab you in it... Damn interfering Suzanne.

But back to Lisbon; after all, Suzanne wasn't what was really important.

Lisbon had been smiling to herself all morning.

Not in an, "My evening last night was _amazing_, and I hope to repeat it often," or in an "I just had world-altering sex last night, and you didn't," kind of a way (thank goodness). But she _was_ still smiling. So obviously her evening with Mr. Unbelievably Tedious hadn't been as tedious as he'd looked.

Lisbon was content, if not wowed.

Oh, Jane knew he should be counting his blessings that she hadn't been swept off her feet (though _how could she have been_, unless the idiot had knocked her over after blinding her with his smile, which was so white it belonged in a toothpaste commercial. Probably all caps too). But even though Lisbon wasn't obviously in love, Jane still didn't like the idea of her being all happy about the prospect of a new relationship at all.

For one, he didn't like the idea of her settling. And as perfect as Mr. Soporific appeared, he wasn't Teresa Lisbon's equal.

Jane wasn't either, but at least he _knew it_. Lawyers had _notoriously_ high opinions of themselves.

And anyway, Jane didn't want Lisbon wasting her time with the walking Embodiment of Average.

He wanted her for himself.

It was just that simple.

He resisted the urge to slam the cupboard door as he searched for his teabags (_who had moved the damn things, and where had they seen fit to hide them?_).

He'd been constructing a plan to tell her he wanted her. It just wasn't ready.

And... and he'd wanted it to be a surprise, so he hadn't even given her a hint of what he was thinking.

In the meantime she'd gone and found herself a shiny-toothed, shiny-haired, shiny-shoed shmuck.

Jane violently wrenched open another cupboard.

"You okay, Jane?" he heard a voice ask tentatively.

Jane took a deep breath. Of course it was her. Just as he'd been well on his way to indulging in a fit of the sulks.

Jane shut the door calmly and looked at the woman standing barely two feet from him looking genuinely concerned. He took another breath and sent her a smile. After all, the _last_ thing he needed right now was for her to think he was angry with _her_. "I'm fine," he told her.

"You sure?" she double-checked.

He winced. Should have known she wouldn't buy that. "Someone moved my tea," he admitted petulantly, deciding to distract her temporarily with the smaller of his two problems.

Lisbon smirked, "You mean the tea sitting on the counter there?" she asked.

Jane glanced down. Oh right, he'd gotten the tea out before he'd set the kettle boiling. He ran a hand through his hair self-consciously. "Ah," he muttered. "I guess I forgot..." he set about mixing his tea. He just wanted to go sit on his couch and think about this for a minute.

Lisbon placed a hand on his arm, effectively stopping him from carrying out his plan. "Seriously Jane," she said. "What's going on? You've been acting strangely all day."

"According to you I'm always acting strangely," he reminded her, summoning up the ghost of a smile.

She smirked. "Strangely for you then," she clarified.

He shrugged. "Just one of those days I guess," he said noncommittally. No way was he going to explain to her the real reason for his irritation.

Lisbon seemed to realize that. Damn her and her ability to read him. She frowned. "Okay," she said after a second. "But if you ever want to talk, or whatever, I'm available. You know that right?"

Jane looked down at the concerned eyes staring up at him and felt warmth bubble up in his chest in spite of his original intention to wallow in self-pity. "How could I forget?" he asked her, with more of a genuine smile.

She smiled back. "Alright. You sure you're okay?"

He sighed exaggeratedly. "_I'm fine_," he assured her. "Just having an irritating day."

"Okay," she said dubiously. "You know where to find me if..."

Suddenly her phone rang.

Lisbon winced. "Sorry," she said quickly.

"S'okay," Jane assured her, his mood sinking again. It was probably that idiot of a lawyer. After all, Jane wouldn't have been able to resist calling Teresa Lisbon the next morning if he'd had the good fortune to have a date with her the evening before.

"Lisbon," she said into the phone. "Oh hey Suze," she said brightly.

Jane's ears pricked up. So not the loser lawyer himself. Interesting.

He watched Lisbon roll her eyes. "It was fine Suzanne," she said dryly. Then she walked a few steps across the lunch room, presumably to stop Jane from listening in. She'd need to go a lot farther than that to achieve _that_ goal. Particularly because Jane had no intention of missing a word.

"Nice," she added. "No, he hasn't called me. It hasn't even been a day. Relax." Lisbon sighed. "_If _he calls, _and_ I'm not on a case, then yeah, I'll probably... _No, I don't want you to call him!"_

Jane's eyes narrowed. He'd been right. Her evening had been good, but not spectacular. Well, Lawyer-Boy wouldn't find a second date with Lisbon easy to get. In fact, Jane would do everything he could to prevent it.

"Um, Boss," Rigsby said as he walked into the room.

"Just a second Suze," Lisbon said, covering the receiver. "Yeah?"

"Sorry to interrupt," Rigsby said quickly. "But we just got a case, triple homicide upstate. They want us as soon as possible."

"Right, I'll be there in a second," Lisbon said immediately. She turned back to the receiver. "Sorry Suze, just got a case out of town, so I guess we'll have to put this conversation on hold until I get back. Talk to you later." With that Lisbon hung up the phone and started to walk out of the break room after her tallest agent. At the last second she ducked back in, "You coming?" she asked Jane.

"Right behind you," he promised her, taking a sip of his tea.

Jane's eyes narrowed the second she turned her back. It seemed he'd gotten a temporary reprieve, and he intended to make the most of it.

Horrible as it sounded, Jane had never been more grateful for a triple homicide in his life. With any luck it'd take the better part of a week to solve, and Lisbon would forget all about the namby-pamby lawyer, or he'd forget about her.

And if he didn't just concede the floor, well, Lawyer-Boy better prepare himself for a battle. Because Jane knew what he wanted, and he wasn't giving her up without a fight.

xxxxx

It was almost five days before Lisbon found herself back in her office at the CBI.

She rolled her neck back and forth over her shoulders.

It'd been a long case. The team had cracked it in the end, but still... a particularly depressing triple homicide, three college friends meeting up for a sort of reunion all gunned down by a fellow student they'd once shunned six years earlier. A fellow student with considerable mental issues as it turned out. There was some question about whether she'd even be fit to stand trial.

It was one of the ones where there were no real winners.

Still, at least it was done and as soon as Lisbon finished her paperwork she'd be able to relax for the day, which hopefully meant she'd be able to leave before, or more likely _at_, 5pm.

Lisbon sighed. She knew she'd finish more quickly if she could just relax.

But she was worried about Jane.

He'd been acting oddly all case. Nothing too serious, just little things.

For a start, he'd been positively... helpful. Not that he wasn't often helpful (she never would have made it through her first three months with him if his unorthodox plans hadn't usually been successful), but he'd been helpful in a subdued sort of a way. No ducking off on her and setting up some crazy scheme, only to tell her about it later, for example. In fact, her consultant had been acting like her shadow all case. Every time Lisbon turned around, there he was.

Which meant Jane was hovering again, just like he had right after Red John. Not really obviously, and certainly not inappropriately, but still hovering (usually just a scootch too close to her personal space). And it wasn't just the hovering, he was bringing Lisbon food and offering a sympathetic ear when the local sheriff's antiquated attitude nearly made her blow a gasket. (The next morning, somehow the man's office locks had been mangled in such a way that the usual key wouldn't open them; Lisbon pretended she didn't know that could have possibly happened even if she did allow herself a small smirk.)

Then there was the touching.

Jane was constantly touching her now.

Never inappropriately, and very rarely in front of anyone else, but definitely frequently. Which, well, it was surprising how often the two of them were alone over the course of a case.

And then there was... Actually, Lisbon didn't know what it was. She'd stumbled one day on uneven pavement in the middle of midnight coffee run, and he'd been there. _Right beside her_. She hadn't realized how close he'd actually gotten until she felt one of his arms under hers and the other wrapped around her waist.

It'd been ... awkward.

Then, to make things even stranger, Jane hadn't let go right away. At least not as quickly as he could have given that she'd righted herself fairly quickly.

Plus he'd been staring at her the entire time. _Right at her_. And his expression hadn't been any of his usual ones. It hadn't been neutral, and there'd been none of the usual playfulness lurking anywhere in his eyes. In fact, if she had to choose, Lisbon would have said his expression reminded her the most of the near-manic, far-too-focussed stare he used to get when he was chasing Red John. Except that this one hadn't been frightening. Jane's eyes hadn't been hollow and cold behind this stare, they'd been... warm.

Then her consultant had tightened his grip on her waist. And just when Lisbon thought he was going to... _do god only knows what_, he'd let her go.

Just let her go.

Stepped back.

Given her a friendly smile and proceeded on his quest for a decent cup of tea.

She'd stared after him for a full ten seconds before jogging to catch up.

Yes, something was definitely going on with her consultant. Lisbon just wasn't sure _what_.

So she would absolutely be checking in with him before she left for the day.

xxxxx

Jane stirred his ever-present cup of tea as he headed for Lisbon's office, comforting himself with the knowledge that his plan hadn't been a complete failure.

Lisbon was still completely oblivious to the fact that he might have romantic intentions of any kind where she was concerned.

He _would_ have suspected that Lisbon saw him as basically completely asexual, but there were moments where he was sure there'd been _something_ between them. And that she'd picked up on it.

Still, she wasn't exactly being encouraging.

If anything he'd done nothing but _confuse_ her.

He needed to get it together. And quickly. Because this was getting pathetic, especially considering that he'd once told Rigsby and Cho that he could seduce any woman they chose. Which, hadn't turned out to be _quite_ true in the end, but Jane was still sure that his seduction skills were better than average.

Except that he didn't want to seduce Lisbon.

Okay, that was a lie. He _did_ want to seduce Lisbon (_oh did he_). He didn't _just_ want to seduce Lisbon.

This is what came of having to change a plan unexpectedly. Curse that lawyer and his ilk.

Except that the idiot lawyer, as far as Jane knew, still hadn't called Lisbon. Not yet. Maybe the lily-livered milksop knew that she was out of town, or maybe he was playing it cool, but either way, the man was a spineless moron (who wouldn't give Teresa Lisbon a second call? And who would wait the better part of a week to do it?). But the cowardly counsellor's delay _did_ give Jane a small window of opportunity that he really needed to take advantage of now that the team was back in Sacramento and Lisbon wasn't being distracted by incompetent local officials and three dead women.

Squaring his shoulders Jane walked purposefully to Lisbon's office. He needed to talk to her.

He'd just about gotten to her door when her phone rang.

"Oh, hey Suzanne," he overheard Lisbon say as she answered it.

Jane paused, Suzanne? As in, Suzanne who set her up with the shiny-haired Neanderthal in the first place? Jane paused just outside her door and tried to look casual.

"Yeah, we're back," Lisbon was explaining. "Just got back this afternoon actually. It was a long one, and I'm glad it's over."

There was a pause, during which Jane assumed Suzanne was saying something generically sympathetic.

"Yeah, some of 'em are like that," Lisbon agreed. "But at least it's almost the weekend."

Another pause.

This time Lisbon sounded amused. "No," she said. "I haven't heard from him."

Jane grimaced. He could only guess who 'him' referred to. Stupid, lawyer-faced goon.

He heard Lisbon chuckle. "Suze, I told you, he was perfectly nice. I had a good time." Another brief pause. "Well, I haven't started picking out bridesmaid's dresses if that's what you're asking," Lisbon said drily. "But sure, feel free to tell him I'm back in town, if it comes up, obviously."

Jane's eyes narrowed. As he'd suspected, Lisbon_ hadn't_ heard from the lousy lawyer again. But she wasn't opposed to hearing from him. At least she wasn't fawning over him either. It didn't sound like she was particularly attached one way or the other.

He heard Lisbon laugh. "_Suzanne!"_ she said, sounding scandalized. "Behave yourself," she giggled. "Anyway, I should go. I promised myself I'd get out of here before five today. Yeah, I'll talk to you later. Bye Suze."

Jane heard her hang up the phone.

He resisted the urge to pace. This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all, especially considering his own non-progress with Lisbon. Clearly he couldn't wait three weeks until all the renovations at his house were done. After all, Mr. Moronic might call Lisbon tonight. Jane needed to act now, before she had a chance to even set up a potential second date.

Now he really needed to talk to her. Immediately.

Barely pausing to knock on her door, Jane strolled into her office.

Lisbon looked up, and smiled. "Jane!" she greeted. "I was just going to look for you. Can you just give me two minutes to put this stuff away, and then I'll be right with you?"

"Sure," Jane murmured as he walked over to her couch.

He could probably use two minutes to get his brain organized himself. Right now all he could think of to say was to demand that she not go out on a second date with the ludicrous-loafer-wearing-lawyer. And that was problematic for several reasons, not the least of which was that Jane knew it made him sound childish at best.

Still, it was the only thing he could think of. Which meant that he'd be pretty much winging it from here on in. Great.

_Although_, he was used to that on the cases wasn't he? After all, he'd been in more unstable situations than he cared to count. He was fast on his feet at least.

Jane was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't immediately notice that Lisbon was finished closing up for the night. She actually had to get his attention by placing a hand on his arm.

"Jane?" she asked gently. "You okay?"

"Hmm?" he hummed, smiling almost reflexively at her. "I'm fine," he said automatically.

Lisbon perched on the arm of the couch next to him. "You sure?" she double-checked. "I've been meaning to touch base with you since we got back. You've been acting kind of oddly lately."

Jane glanced up at her, her expression concerned, as it so often was when it came to him (though she hadn't had as much cause for concern lately, not before this week at least). He forced himself to relax. This was Lisbon. His Lisbon. She wouldn't let anything too horrible happen. Neither would he.

Jane took her hand and started playing with her fingers, privately amused when her expression changed from concerned to confused. He let his fingers move up her palm to brush against her wrist, pleased when her pulse skipped. So not so completely unaffected, just as he'd thought. He let his fingers slide back down to toy with hers, enjoying the hints of panic creeping into her eyes.

"It's just," he said softly. "It's..."

"Yes," Lisbon prompted, her voice slightly breathless.

"Can we talk?" he asked, deliberately giving her his most hopeful expression.

Lisbon's expression softened. "Of course Jane," she agreed immediately. "You know you can always talk to me. What is it?"

He shook his head. "Not here," he told her quickly.

Immediately her expression darkened, and he realized he was actually genuinely worrying her now.

"No, no," he assured her. "It's not... there's nothing wrong. I just want to talk to you. It's not work related and I don't want to..."

Lisbon exhaled, forcing herself to calm down. After all, she was perfectly happy to get out of the office. "Okay," she said slowly. "Where _do_ you want to talk?"

Jane grinned suddenly. "I know just the place. Come with me."

xxxxx

The two of them made it down to his car without major incident; though Lisbon kept shooting him concerned looks the entire way, and Jane insisted on keeping a hand near her waist, something that she was loathe to admit was making her feel slightly off balance.

Jane opened the passenger door of his car for her and ushered her inside. Then he got in the driver's side.

"So, where we going?" Lisbon asked as he pulled out of his parking spot.

Jane shook his head. "Surprise," he told her.

"Okay," she said slowly. "And you're sure everything's fine?"

He smirked. "I'm positive, Lisbon," he answered. "Well okay, everything's not quite fine exactly. But it will be soon. I hope."

"Now you're just making me nervous," Lisbon told him. "Possibly on purpose."

Jane shook his head a second time. "Patience," he told her. "I promise, I'll explain everything."

"Okay," Lisbon said again. "If you say so."

Jane ignored her. He'd suddenly realized something. Maybe it wouldn't be the best idea to take Lisbon directly to the bungalow. That might be too much of a surprise, especially since she was already nervous. It might be better to break the news to her gently.

Making an impulsive decision, Jane headed towards a local park midway between the CBI building and his house and pulled into the parking lot. He stopped the car, removed his seatbelt and turned towards his companion.

To his amusement she mirrored his pose, even removing her own seatbelt.

"So, are we getting out?" Lisbon asked after a moment, when he didn't say anything.

Jane shook his head, and tried to think of a good way to start the conversation. Problem was, he wasn't sure there _was_ a good way to start this conversation.

After a good two minutes of silence, Lisbon decided to try making a joke. "Look Jane," she said with a friendly smile. "You know I'm always here if you need me, but if you're just going to sit here in silence, do I really need to be here? I've got other things I could be doing right now."

Jane looked over at her abruptly. _Things she could be doing?_ Like waiting for that spineless cad of a lawyer's call? Jane's eyes narrowed and he felt his blood begin to thrum in his veins, his imagination running wild as it conjured up images of Lisbon running home to catch a phone call from Mr. Generic, giggling into the receiver as he asked her to dinner again. A small part of Jane's brain knew he was being irrational, but he didn't care at that moment. She wanted to leave. She was trying to get out of here, to brush him off. She _couldn't_ leave. He absolutely couldn't let her get out of the car. He'd do everything in his power to prevent it. His lips quirked up as he got a bit of an idea.

"This year's been a bit of a rough year," he said slowly, taking care to make his voice sound slightly vulnerable, hopefully just enough arouse her protective tendencies. She'd never leave him then. "For me, for you, for everyone," he added.

"Yeah," Lisbon whispered, the smile slipping off her face when she heard his serious tone.

"And I'm fine," Jane hastened to assure her, noting how her face had gone ghostly pale, just like the last time she'd thought he was about to tell her he was leaving the CBI. He didn't want her sad, just _there. _"I... well, there have been a lot of changes, y'know?"

Lisbon nodded, not really understanding. "Yeah," she said again, hoping it would prompt him to keep going.

Jane leaned forward, well into her personal space. "I've been," he said softly, moving his left hand down to her waist. "Well, I've been re-thinking some things," he admitted. "And realizing others," he murmured as he stroked his fingers along her hipbone.

Lisbon's breathing turned shallower. What was Jane doing? Oh god, had he just tucked her hair behind her ear? _What was going on?_ She wasn't prepared for this. She had no idea how to deal with this. "Jane," she whispered in what might have been protest.

"Yes dear?" he murmured close to her ear.

"What are you...?" she started to ask before she was distracted by his fingers doing... _something_ along her waist.

"I know this must be terribly inconvenient for you right now, Teresa," Jane said smoothly, with just a hint of bite behind it. He didn't care what she thought about it, he was going to make sure she missed that coxcomb of a lawyer's call, if the fool managed to summon up enough gumption to call her at all. "I'm sure you had other plans for your evening," Jane drawled suggestively.

"Well," Lisbon said softly before trailing off. She had been thinking about becoming reacquainted with her couch and letting herself indulge in the Mayan Chocolate ice cream she had in the back of her freezer, but those plans certainly weren't set in stone...

"But I'm afraid I'm going to have to hijack a little bit more of your time," Jane added, sliding his hand up and away from her hip.

Lisbon bit her lip to prevent a sigh of disappointment from escaping.

"I'm afraid I'm also going to have to ensure that you don't try to escape," Jane added, his tone suddenly predatory.

Lisbon blinked. "What?" she asked in confusion, the change in his demeanour making her suddenly wary.

She heard the click of her handcuffs a second too late.

"_What the hell?"_ she asked, looking down at her now-restrained hands.

"Trust me, it's for your own good," Jane assured her calmly as he leaned back into his own seat.

xxxxx

TBC

Well, I did get to the handcuffs in this chapter at least. Sort of. I'm hoping to get the next one up sometime around the weekend, but we shall see.


	5. Chapter 4

Okay, I am amused by the sheer number of people who were surprised by what happened at the end of the last chapter. After all, you all knew Lisbon had to get handcuffed _somehow._ I couldn't think of any way other than just straight up distraction on Jane's part. And given the subject of this fic, a bit of semi-seduction really did seem like the best plan...

This chapter actually contains the original vignette. Along with the rest of the lead-up to it (the first half of this chapter). The original vignette (the second half of this chapter) is mostly unchanged, at least the dialogue. I did change the POV as the original didn't really make any sense in this story. There are some minor alterations of course, so definitely still worth a read I think.

Hope you agree!

xxxxx

Chapter 4

xxxxx

Lisbon looked down at the handcuffs around her wrists in a mixture of confusion and shock. "You handcuffed me," she said stupidly.

"Yes," Jane agreed, pleased that he sounded much calmer than he felt.

"_You handcuffed me with my own damn handcuffs,_" Lisbon repeated, anger seeping into her voice.

"You threatened to get out of the car," Jane defended, like that explained everything.

"I was joking!" she snapped. "Because you asked if you could talk to me, you drove me all of the way out here, and then you didn't actually _say_ anything, _you idiot._ Now take these off!" Lisbon demanded, holding up her wrists and trying to look authoritative despite the nerves suddenly breeding in the bottom of her stomach.

"No," Jane refused obstinately. Okay, he _may_ have gone a bit far by actually handcuffing her, but he'd genuinely panicked when she'd said she would leave. He needed to talk to her. He needed to keep her near him. Besides, she'd handcuffed _him_ once, and look how that had worked out (all for the best in the end, though unpleasant at the time). Handcuffs were a previously tested and successful method of keeping someone in a car. Jane needed to keep Lisbon in the car. Ergo, the handcuffs. To be extra sure she didn't try to escape he decided to lock the doors.

"No?" Lisbon repeated in a daze. "Oh, that's mature," she added when she heard the doors lock.

"I'm not known for my maturity," Jane said smoothly. Admittedly, this conversation wasn't going like he'd hoped, and that was probably his fault. But, he'd found long ago that once he'd committed to one of his plans, it was far better to stick to it than admit defeat. For example, in this case if he removed the handcuffs now, Lisbon would probably deck him (at the very least). And that would make the situation far worse, given that at the moment, while Lisbon was definitely irate in his general direction, she was restrained from physically abusing him.

"That's an understatement," Lisbon muttered, as she fiddled with the locks.

The second she got her door unlocked, Jane simply re-locked it.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" she demanded, trying one more time to unlock the doors.

Jane had them locked a third time before Lisbon could even reach the door handle.

"Oh, that's great," she growled.

"It's for your own good," Jane said smoothly. "After all, how are you going to explain the fact that you're in handcuffs to anyone you happen to encounter on your way back to the CBI building? Better yet, how are you even going to get back to the CBI building? It's a bit far to walk, and your purse is in the backseat so taking public transit might be difficult. Really, I'm just thinking ahead on your behalf. Because unless you're planning on calling someone to come and rescue you, _in handcuffs_..."

"Bastard," Lisbon muttered, though she did lean back against the seat.

"Sometimes," Jane murmured in agreement. "You know that," he added as turned the car back on and shifted into reverse. Clearly having this conversation in the car wasn't working. Probably best to fall back on his original plan, albeit a slightly modified one. "You may want to put on your seatbelt," he added solicitously, trying not to think about the expression in her eyes right before he'd snapped the handcuffs closed. New impulsive plan or no, he was _not_ seducing Teresa Lisbon in a _car_. Not the first time at least.

Lisbon complied and reached for her seatbelt, all the while muttering under her breath (Jane figured he probably didn't want to hear it after catching the words, 'idiot,' 'cretin,' 'damn consultant,' 'what the hell'). "Oh, isn't this comfortable," Lisbon said sarcastically, when she realized that seatbelts weren't exactly designed to be worn with handcuffs.

"Just think how all the criminals you arrest feel," Jane said cheerfully, his sense of humour returning to him now that it was becoming clear that Lisbon _wasn't_ going to put up enough of a fight to actually _leave_ (and wasn't _that_ interesting? After all, he would hardly have been cruel enough to abandon her in a park in handcuffs...)

"_Shut up!"_ Lisbon snapped.

"Fine, dear," he agreed.

"And don't you dare call me _dear_," Lisbon added venomously. Jerk was enjoying this. She knew he was. Just wait until he took the handcuffs off. Then he wouldn't be laughing any more. He wouldn't be laughing ever again; she'd make sure of that. What in the hell was the point of handcuffing her? What did he think she was going to do? Like she needed to be _restrained_ just to talk to him... Like the people they dealt with on the job, "I'm_ not_ a criminal," she added with a growl.

"I never said you were," Jane reminded her calmly.

Lisbon ignored him, the jerk. "If anything, _you_ are. This is little more than kidnapping."

"I told you, I need to talk to you," Jane explained again.

"And I need to be handcuffed for a simple conversation, why?"

"To make sure you don't leave," Jane explained patiently, with a hint of a smile. He knew handcuffs weren't typically used for conversations between friends, but he couldn't afford to take any more chances with her. Not with that unwanted interloper just waiting in the wings, ready to pounce.

Lisbon stared at him. She thought Jane had known that she that he could count on her to stick by him. But obviously there was no point in talking to him. Just when she thought their relationship was making progress, that things were becoming more stable, that they could trust each other. "I wasn't going to leave," Lisbon explained again, feeling like the conversation was going in circles. "But now I may be re-thinking that..."

"Even in handcuffs?" Jane reminded her.

"You'll have to take them off eventually," she threatened in return.

"Not exactly incentive for me to do it anytime soon, is it then?" Jane asked casually, really enjoying himself now (god she was _fabulous_ when she was angry). "If you're issuing threats."

Lisbon lapsed into more muttering about the proper way to treat a friend, a woman even.

That finally seemed to provoke her consultant.

"And is that what you want then?" Jane growled. "A man who'll just fawn all over you and do whatever you want, do the proper thing? Someone who's so ridiculously _safe_ he may as well have been made-to-order? Someone without even a hint of a spine? Not willing to take a chance, _ever?_ Or willing to let you make all the decisions?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Lisbon snapped, her head starting to spin. "What does _that_ have to do anything? I'm not talking to you anymore; you've obviously gone crazy."

Jane rolled his eyes at her, gripping the steering wheel in frustration. But he figured in a way she was right. Having this conversation in the car was definitely not a good idea. He needed to be facing her, among other things.

He couldn't help glancing at the woman still fuming beside him. Muttering a wide variety of personal threats under one's breath really shouldn't have been an attractive position.

But he found it endearing. While the object of his affections obviously had no idea how strong his feelings were.

"You'll pay for this," Lisbon growled, suddenly breaking her silence. She supposed she should be grateful he'd decided to let her stay in the front seat. The way he'd been... _manhandling_ her, she'd expected to be humiliatingly shoved in the back seat of the damn contraption they were currently riding in.

"Will I?" Jane asked, obviously amused. "Somehow I don't think so."

"I'll make sure of it," she spat out.

"Such threats Agent Lisbon," he murmured patronizingly. "A little ironic given your current position. I'd have thought you'd think to try being nice to me."

"I'll show you _nice,_ you arrogant little…" she seethed, her face livid.

"Tsk, tsk. Temper, temper. Wouldn't want to give yourself a heart attack or an aneurism would you?" he asked with a grin.

She didn't answer, preferring to stare stonily out the window. She was really done talking this time.

When Jane realized that she was actually going to stick to her vow of silence, at least for the time being, he was forced to admit, for about the tenth time in the last five minutes, that he _definitely_ could have handled the whole situation better.

Ah well, too late for that now.

xxxxx

After her final refusal to speak to him, Lisbon did indeed lapse into silence.

There really was no talking to Jane when he was like this.

Imagine, handcuffing someone because they made an innocent little joke about getting out of a car! _Honestly_. Especially since she'd stuck by him through far, _far_ worse.

But really, what could she expect from _Jane?_ His views on what was socially acceptable were shaky sometimes. And he had been acting strangely all week. Add to that the constant touching, and the way he'd been looking at her... and...

And what had been with his little game to get her handcuffs in the first place?

And why on earth did she need to be restrained? Even in _Jane's_ mind.

God.

Jane had _restrained_ her. He'd restricted her freedom. She was, she was almost _contained_, definitely handicapped.

She was in Patrick Jane's power. (_And he could do anything he liked..._)

To a certain extent at least. Until he saw fit to release her. Because Jane was right, she'd just about _die _of embarrassment if anyone else found out about this.

Not that she was worried about that. She was fairly certain Jane wouldn't tell anyone. She wasn't sure _how_ she knew, but she did. Maybe it was just that he knew she'd actually kill him if he did and even _Patrick Jane _had more of a sense of self-preservation than that. Either way, whatever this was, it was between the two of them. And Lisbon knew it would stay that way. She trusted him at least that much.

She just _did._

Which was part of the reason she wasn't frightened now.

And not just because she was far too angry for anything else. (As if she'd ever be frightened of the likes of _Patrick Jane._ Idiot. She'd show him. Just wait. Whatever little sleep he did get had better be with one eye open.)

Besides, Lisbon knew, whatever he had planned, Jane would never deliberately hurt her.

So why _had_ he handcuffed her? She couldn't help be a little bit curious.

He'd claimed it was to stop her from leaving. (_But she hadn't been going to leave._)

He'd claimed he needed to talk to her, and that it was important. (_What could be so important that he needed to handcuff her, just to have a discussion?_)

Most intriguing of all, he wasn't quite calm. (_He was hiding it well, but he was periodically gripping the steering wheel like his life depended on it and he couldn't seem to stop from glancing at her every thirty seconds._)

Patrick Jane was agitated.

Good.

Lisbon hoped he was afraid of what she'd do to him when she finally did get free. (She'd meant it about the sleeping with one eye open.)

Until then she'd just wait impatiently. With no idea where he was taking her or why.

She had no idea about any of this.

He wasn't going to hurt her. She trusted him, but...

She had no control.

Her hands were literally tied.

Lisbon tried to ignore the dark and dangerous feelings brewing in the pit of her stomach, and when she couldn't, she told herself they were just anger. At Jane.

Damn Patrick Jane.

Who kept looking over at her and smirking, _affectionately_.

Like it was adorable that he'd handcuffed her, and this was all just a big game to him.

Ass.

She wanted to smack the smirk off his face. But that'd be awkward in handcuffs. There had to be another way to wipe it off his face... Not that she was speaking to him.

_What did he want with her?_

He wasn't going to hurt her. She trusted him.

Why had Jane taken control, _her_ control?

What had he said before? Did she really want a man who never challenged her authority? Well, Patrick Jane certainly wasn't _that._ Not that he was _hers._

But he'd been touching her lately. And turning those unexpected, ultra-focussed eyes in her direction.

Now he'd handcuffed her in his car.

_He'd handcuffed her in his car._

He had some nerve! Lisbon deliberately let herself get worked back up into a temper.

She'd kill him.

Lisbon didn't care that she knew he didn't mean her any harm. _She meant him harm._

How much longer was this little impromptu trip going to last anyway? Jane certainly hadn't enlightened her. And the hell if she was going to ask him.

Lisbon glared at the cuffs in front of her, the ones holding her hands hostage. She couldn't believe he'd had the nerve to use her own handcuffs to restrain her.

You didn't handcuff a cop with their own handcuffs. You just _didn't._ If anyone found out... If he ever let it slip (which he wouldn't. Besides, who would he even tell?)

Lisbon sat in stony silence, for the remainder of the drive, her mind whirling in circles of anger and confusion.

Five minutes later when they pulled up in front of a little bungalow she'd never seen before, her resolution not to speak to him again wavered. "And what are we doing here?" she asked.

"It's private," Jane told her calmly. "I thought you and I needed to have a little talk."

"You kidnapped a CBI Agent just to have a little talk?" she asked incredulously. "You _are_ insane."

Jane smiled at her dramatics (though his smile was partly to mask re-emerging nerves). "Perhaps if you weren't quite so… stubborn, we could have had this talk under other circumstances," he said with a shrug, as he opened the passenger-side door and led her into the house. Lisbon couldn't help noticing that his hand was hovering near her hip-bone _again_ (just shy of actually touching her). "But you can be remarkably unyielding at times _Agent_ Lisbon," Jane continued as he unlocked the front door. "One might say almost implacable. It raises certain difficulties."

She glared at him.

"I would ask if I could take your coat," he continued, not at all perturbed by the look of pure hatred he was on the receiving end of. "But that might be difficult under the circumstances," he said, gesturing to her handcuffs and trying not to laugh.

"You're enjoying this," she growled. "You think you have all the control, that you're _so_ clever. Well, let me tell you something, you conceited, scheming, untrustworthy, idiot…"

"You're enjoying it to," he said sharply, cutting off her rant before she could really get started. He was suddenly tired of the pretence. He'd seen her eyes when he'd let his hand explore along her hipbone to distract her and find her handcuffs. She'd _wanted _him to touch her. And unless he was very much mistaken, she still did. Made him wonder what her anger was really masking.

Lisbon gaped at him for a minute, before finding her powers of speech. "I… I am not!"

Suddenly her tormentor grinned, approaching her slowly. He suddenly felt a little more at ease. This was his Lisbon, ever-stubborn. Never giving an inch. Well, she hadn't ever gone up against him before. Not directly.

Lisbon took a step backwards. Then she saw Jane's grin turn predatory, _triumphant_, and she resolved to stand her ground. She was an agent of the CBI and she would not be cowed by this… by this _bully_. She squared her shoulders and raised her chin in challenge.

"Of course you're enjoying this," Jane informed her in a voice so smooth it positively _screamed_ sinister intentions. Lisbon could practically feel it trying insinuate itself into her brain.

"Don't be ridiculous," she retorted immediately. She had no idea what he was talking about. And even if she did, she certainly wasn't going to agree with him. What had gotten into him anyway?

"Am I?" he wondered. "Then why didn't you jump out of the car?"

"Jump out of a moving car?" she asked in disbelief. "In handcuffs? Yeah, that sounds like a _great idea_. This isn't the movies," she scoffed, trying to buy herself time to figure something out.

"Are you telling me that tough, fearless Teresa Lisbon couldn't handle jumping out of a moving car while we were still in the city and driving at a reasonable speed?" Jane wondered. He certainly wouldn't recommend it, but he was equally sure that if Lisbon ever thought it was necessary to catch a suspect, she'd roll out of her seat in a second.

"Maybe I never thought you'd take it this far," Lisbon countered quickly. "I incorrectly assumed you'd come to your senses. There will be serious consequences now." She _had _assumed he'd release her eventually. He had to. What purpose could keeping her handcuffed _possibly _serve? For one thing, he wouldn't last a _week_ at the CBI without her around to defend him.

"Of course there will," he acknowledged. He was counting on it actually; they just had different ideas of what those consequences would be. "But when have you ever known _me_ to back down?"

"When have you ever known _me_ to?" she shot back her anger simmering happily away again.

"Ah, but that's the point, isn't it?" he told her, deliberately provoking her, trying to knock her off balance since at this point any sort of calm conversation wasn't possible. He couldn't honestly say he was all that disappointed. She was too fabulous a challenge to resist. And if he was honest, his control was shaky at best now too. "You always like to be in control, _Agent Lisbon_. Crave it really. It's practically pathological at this point. And as a result people always thrust control on to you. It makes someone like me want to try and break it," Jane informed her bluntly, knowing that it would do to her.

"Wh-what?" Lisbon stuttered, suddenly unsure of where this, _he_, was going.

"Do I make you nervous Teresa?" Jane whispered in her ear as he took a step closer, enjoying the slight tremor his breath chased down her neck.

Lisbon forced her spine straight and refused to step back in spite his proximity. "No," she insisted. She wasn't frightened of Jane. Whatever he was up to, she wasn't frightened. And she definitely wasn't _nervous_.

"Mm. Very good," he hummed his approval. "Vocal tone was strong, determined, almost angry. You almost had me fooled Teresa. Almost. Still, A for effort."

"What do you want?" she asked him, trying to ignore what she could only assume were his deliberate attempts to bait her.

Jane chuckled. "But I told you what I want," he reminded her. "I _want_ to break your control. And what's more, you want me to."

"And why would I want that?" she asked sarcastically, determined to keep her irritation to the forefront, deliberately ignoring the other emotions bubbling just underneath.

Jane grinned lazily. Bad idea Teresa, he thought to himself. Asking a question you didn't actually want to hear the answer to. Or... maybe she did. Maybe that was the issue. Part of her desperately wanted someone else to not only recognize the question (the one he was sure no one else had ever even considered), but to know the answer as well. So Jane told her, "Because you're sick of holding on to everything so tightly. You're sick of constantly being the responsible one. Sick of having to take care of what feels like the entire universe. You _want_ to let everything go. You _want_ to give in to someone else. In fact, I think you _let_ me handcuff you."

"I did not let you handcuff me!" Lisbon countered quickly. She ignored her suddenly tripled nerves. "You tricked me."

"I provided a convenient pretext for you to let yourself be put in my power," he corrected, taking a step closer into her personal space.

Lisbon's mouth dropped open in shock. A second later she remembered herself and snapped it shut. "Oh that's ridiculous," she said, finding her irritation again. After all, any other reaction was unthinkable.

"Is it?" her antagonist wondered, trailing his nose slowly from her ear, down the line of her chin to brush his lips against the hollow of her throat. He could feel desire beginning to spread through his chest. It was the way she smelled; he knew the fragrance, but he'd never experienced it this close.

Lisbon jumped. He may have been touching her lately, but he'd never... not anything so direct... "What do you think you're doing," she asked her voice betraying an unconcealable hint of nervousness.

Jane chuckled against her skin. "Shattering your control," he whispered, unable to resist brushing his lips against her neck a second time. How had he managed to keep himself from this for so long again? And why?

Lisbon put her hands firmly against his chest. "Wait," she ordered quietly but firmly.

"Why?" Jane whispered into her other ear as he placed a hand on the small of her back to hold her still. He certainly wouldn't force her, but he also wasn't going to let her escape unless she insisted, which she certainly wasn't (she hadn't said _no_, she'd said_ wait_). He couldn't lose her now; he might go mad.

She paused, trying to think of a reason, before remembering that she didn't have to. "Because."

"That's not very convincing," Jane informed her, his lips only centimetres from hers, ready to close the distance the second she gave the sign.

"Step back," she whispered.

"You step back," he countered, remembering the best way to use her stubbornness against her just in time. "Or is that too much of a sign of weakness, _Agent Lisbon_?"

"Bastard," she growled.

"Maybe," Jane admitted quietly. "But you're still not moving. And we both know that even with your hands restrained, you could still easily cause me more than enough pain to make me back down, especially given my current position. If you wanted me to back down that is."

"I do," Lisbon insisted just as quietly. She did. Didn't she? And what was Jane doing? He wasn't attracted to her, couldn't be attracted to her, not really. Suddenly she wasn't so sure.

"Okay," her oh-so-skilful tormentor replied, trailing his fingers slowly up and down her spine, smirking when her eyes fluttered closed momentarily before popping back open in shock. Jane watched her marshal her anger yet again, and prepared himself for another fight. His grin turned wicked. Truthfully he'd hoped she wouldn't give in quite that easily. None of this may have been his original plan, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to enjoy it. He hadn't enjoyed anything so much in a long time.

"Why this? Why now?" Lisbon demanded, pushing against his chest with her hands so he was forced to take a half a step back.

"Why not?" Jane asked drolly. And he certainly wasn't about to admit that her half-witted dinner companion had upset all his romantic plans and spurred him into unexpected action. "I certainly don't have any scruples of any kind. Now seemed as good a time as any."

Lisbon almost rolled her eyes at the flippant response. "Then why me?"

Her question finally made Jane's control visibly start to fray. He positively growled, pushing himself closer to her in spite of her hands. He'd wanted her desperately for longer than he cared to admit. He wouldn't listen to her question _that_ of all things. "You know the answer to that," he hissed before nipping her ear.

Lisbon gasped before she could stop herself. _This_ was a different Jane. _This_ wasn't her breezy consultant who took almost nothing seriously on the surface, who thought everything was a game . _This_ was the Jane of the unwavering stare and the fleeting touches along her hipbones. Her next breath came out as a sigh.

She felt Jane grin against the shell of her ear. "You _like_ that I kidnapped you," he whispered, his voice shaking slightly. "You _like_ that I'm a little bit dangerous. You _like _that I'm not gonna follow any rules. And most of all, you _like_ that I'm not backing down like that vacillating namby-pamby of an attorney you went to dinner with last week would have. Idiot obviously isn't a trial lawyer." Useless imbecile. Jane _knew_ that Lisbon hadn't responded to that jellyfish in any kind of significant way. His arm tightened possessively around her waist.

"What?" she asked, her head spinning. Jane had known about her dinner date? That in and of itself wasn't so surprising, but why hadn't he _said_ anything if it'd bothered him this much? She'd never _dreamed..._ "When did you…"

"I saw the walking bore when I came downstairs to get a cup of tea," Jane admitted. "You don't want him, and you know it. We _both _know it. You want someone who'll fight with you. Who'll stand up to you. Who'll push you as hard as you push them," he said, adding even more pressure against her hands, until they gave way. "And yeah, you want someone you can beat, at least verbally. But the funny thing is," he added, nipping briefly at her neck again his voice suddenly low, "You want someone who can beat you right back. You want someone who'll push, and prod, and rub you the wrong way," he informed her, trailing a hand up her spine again. "And you desperately want someone who'll take the time to wrestle the control you cling to from your hands."

"I don't," Lisbon whispered, but even she knew she was lying.

"Don't you?" he wondered, angling his body back where it had been, dwarfing her smaller frame.

"No," she said hoarsely, her voice shaking as much as his was as she tried to remember why she was even arguing with him.

"Then why haven't you kneed me in the groin before now?"Jane asked, his eyes finding hers. "Why are you tolerating my presence in your personal space? Why is your breathing quick and shallow? Why are you practically fighting to keep your eyes open? And _why_, instead of pushing me away, are your hands fisted so tightly in my clothing that I'm not entirely sure I _could _take a single step backwards, even if I wanted to?"

"Damn it Jane," she moaned, letting her head fall back against her shoulders.

He grinned triumphantly. "Tell me why," he repeated, whispering insistently against her lips. "If you don't want this, tell me why you'd surrender completely if I kissed you right now."

Lisbon sighed and leaned her forehead against his, her opposition gone. "Stockholm Syndrome," she murmured. Before giving into herself and letting him prevent her from saying any more.

xxxxx

TBC

Nobody panic. In this fic, this isn't the end. We've got at least two more chapters I'd imagine. Maybe more. Not quite sure really.


	6. Chapter 5

Okay, here it is. Hope you guys like it. Thanks so much to **yaba** for giving this a read-through then talking me down from a ledge and assuring me that this chapter is alright, and not a big mess.

xxxxx

Chapter 5

xxxxx

It was the clang that woke her, she was sure of it.

Someone had made some sort of godforsaken noise for who knows what reason.

Lisbon tried to burrow deeper into the pillow to block out the racket, sighing into the sheets.

The very high thread-count sheets. The sheets that felt like higher quality than the ones she'd tossed on her own bed the weekend before.

Her eyes popped open.

Oh right.

She wasn't in her bed. She wasn't at home. She was... _Where the hell was she?_

Where exactly had Jane taken her?

Now that Lisbon thought about it, she didn't remember him mentioning... Although, she didn't remember him saying much of anything after a certain point.

There'd been a lot more _nonverbal _communication.

After he'd kissed her the first time.

And then...

Memories of the previous few hours started resurfacing, the way he'd touched her, kissed her, loved her. She'd always figured he'd be good (and yeah, she absolutely had thought about it, not only because of his particular skill set, but because she was attracted to him _and_ she spent large portions of every day standing _right next_ to him). Still, she hadn't ever expected him to be quite so... romantic about it. She'd expected the intensity, the trembling, the almost overwhelming emotional release. But she'd thought he'd be more controlled, almost calculating. He'd certainly been assertive (Lisbon paused to feel for a bruise on her shoulder from when Jane had accidentally knocked her into a doorway on their way to the bedroom). But she hadn't been expecting the look in his eyes when he'd finally gotten her shirt off or the way 'dear' had changed to 'dearest' before he finally lapsed into simply whispering her name over and over again.

Oh god, she'd slept with her consultant. She'd slept with Patrick Jane.

_Oh god._

It was all his fault.

After all, he'd kissed her _first._

xxxxx

_Hours earlier_

xx

Almost immediately after giving him tacit permission to kiss her, Lisbon felt Jane's hands tangle in her hair. But that hardly seemed important considering what his lips were currently doing.

All of a sudden she didn't care about any of it anymore, the stupid argument (whatever it was about), the fact that Jane could be the most annoying man on the planet, the fact that he'd apparently woken up one morning and randomly decided to seduce her. She. Did. Not. Care. She wanted him. She hadn't admitted to herself how much until that moment. But the man was constantly tying her up in knots and now she desperately wanted them untied, and she wanted him to do it. She started to unbutton his vest, trying to bury her hands underneath it, or wrap them around his neck, or _something._ But she couldn't because the damn handcuffs were in the way. She struggled against her bonds, groaning in irritation.

It took a minute for her frustration to register with Jane (he'd been too busy exploring her neck again). But as soon as it did, he had her wrists gently clasped in one hand while he fished the key to her handcuffs out of one of his multitude of pockets with the other. If Lisbon wanted her hands free to explore, she could have them free (he'd take the risk of getting punched in the face. It was more than worth it.).

Lisbon was pretty sure her arms were around his neck before the cuffs hit the ground. He somehow managed to push her jacket off her shoulders at the same time. She wasn't sure how. But again, she didn't care; she was too busy running her hands along his shoulders, trying to push _his_ jacket off. When Jane removed an arm from around her waist to shake the offending piece of clothing to the floor she took advantage of his distraction to kiss _him_.

Took control a little.

She needed him closer, so much closer. She was pretty sure that his moaned "Teresa," meant that he was okay with that.

After he finally shed the damn jacket, Jane's hands found her waist again and he'd started manoeuvring her across the room and down a hallway.

Lisbon wasn't paying too much attention to the direction they were moving. She was occupied with the buttons on his vest.

That was when Jane had accidentally shoved her into a doorway.

Lisbon remembered he'd whispered sorry.

She was pretty sure she told him to shut up.

None of that seemed to matter so much because she'd finally gotten the final layer of his shirt unbuttoned, and a few seconds later she felt her knees hit the back of the bed.

And she'd simply let herself fall back.

xxxxx

Now she was lying in that same bed. Alone.

She had no idea what was going on, what Jane was thinking, or what he wanted.

She was sure his intentions weren't malicious, or cruel. _But..._

But he had seduced her almost out of the blue, and he hadn't given her much of an indication what his future plans were. Was this intended to be a sort of a one-night stand, just a one-time thing? There were elements of the afternoon that had seemed particularly unplanned, even by Jane standards. Or maybe it was all because he hadn't been with a woman in a while and everything had all of a sudden sort of boiled over for him. _She_ _was_ the dominant female in his life. Maybe he'd just kissed her without considering the consequences. He didn't think about the consequences a lot of the time.

Except... except that struck Lisbon as rather careless, even for Jane, who admittedly could be careless.

And some of the things he'd said to her, about what kind of man she wanted, about her dinner date last week, they made Lisbon think that Jane maybe _had_ been thinking about things for a while. Or at least longer than two hours.

So maybe this was something a little more than casual sex.

Although, that still didn't mean that Jane knew what he wanted from her.

Did he want a relationship? (Did she?) He was apparently making her dinner after all... Except that she hadn't ever thought Jane was anywhere near ready to date again. Maybe he never would be. Maybe he was just making her dinner because he'd tricked her into coming here and she was his friend. Was he thinking about some sort of friends with benefits arrangement? Was this just a release of tension?

She had no friggin' clue.

She didn't even know where she _was_ for heaven's sakes.

Lisbon sat up and glanced around the bedroom, making sure the sheets were firmly wrapped around her. It was obviously a bedroom that had been lived in, and a male bedroom at that. The colour scheme was mostly deep blues with hints of greens. It was nice enough, better decorated than her own apartment in some ways, though it still felt a bit like it was settling in somehow.

She could poke around more, but given that she wasn't sure where she was, that seemed like a bad idea. And anyway, _where were her clothes?_

She didn't see them anywhere, and she was certain that most of them hadn't been removed until the two of them had reached the bedroom.

Which meant Jane had collected them and taken them somewhere.

Which in turn meant she was kind of stuck. Swell.

That was when Lisbon noticed the clothes folded on the chair by the wall (her gun and badge on the table beside it where she vaguely remembered putting them earlier). It looked like a t-shirt and sweatpants.

The intention was unmistakeable. If she had the courage for it.

Lisbon dropped back against the pillow.

Apparently she had two options. She could get out of bed, put on the offered clothing and go get some answers, or she could bury herself in the blankets and hide from the world a little longer. She wasn't going to lie; she was definitely leaning towards option B (especially since Jane really did have excellent taste in bedding). She pulled the comforter up over her head.

Only to throw it back thirty seconds later.

She was Teresa Lisbon and she didn't hide from anyone. She confronted violent criminals on a near-weekly basis; she could certainly deal with Patrick Jane. Especially since she could really smell dinner cooking now, and she hadn't eaten since eleven that morning.

Before she could change her mind, Lisbon practically jumped from the bed and tossed the t-shirt over her head. It came to about three inches above her knees. She briefly considered whether the pants were even necessary, given that they'd inevitably also be several sizes too big. But she didn't like the implications of that for any number of reasons. So she pulled the sweatpants on, pleased when she realized they had a drawstring waist and elastics around the ankles, and so weren't as insanely huge as she'd otherwise feared.

Lisbon let herself snuggle briefly into the softness of the clothing, appreciating the familiarity of the faint smell of Jane's cologne mixed with his laundry detergent. Then she realized she was acting like a high school student burrowing into her boyfriend's sweater, and she was no high school student, and Jane wasn't her boyfriend. And...

And part of her wished Jane would just suddenly appear in the doorway and forcefully (now that she knew just how forceful he could be) rip the t-shirt off again before tipping her back into bed and making her forget about the whole mess for a little while longer.

Except that dinner smelled really good.

Jane was cooking her dinner?

Lisbon's heart thudded in her chest as she padded out of the bedroom, in the direction she assumed the kitchen was.

She was mainly going by smell. She'd been a bit distracted earlier, and Jane definitely hadn't given her a formal tour.

He'd been far more interested in exploring her.

xxxxx

Lisbon had never been a particularly tactile person. She'd never really been one for touching other people. Other than tackling the suspects or shoving them into walls obviously. But she didn't usually touch her friends, or her team.

She knew that she could be a bit stand-offish and that was fine. She just didn't think a person needed to invade another's personal space to show affection.

Maybe it was because she'd seen what the wrong kind of touch could do. Maybe she was reading too much into it.

She just wasn't all that touchy-feely.

Jane was. Had been right from the start.

Even during their first year working together (oh, that first year – Lisbon could barely think about it without shuddering). Jane had constantly been touching her, taking her pulse to gauge her mood or just establish a baseline, a finger brushing along her arm to get her attention, grabbing her wrist to check the time on her watch, removing fluff from her suit, or leaves from her hair (after a bit of a messy tackle in a national park).

He was just tactile; it was how he operated.

It had driven her crazy.

Especially since he never seemed to do it quite as much with anyone else. She'd always figured her obvious discomfort at being touched amused him.

And it didn't matter how many times she snapped at him for touching her without warning, or yanked her arm away from him, he still did it.

Somewhere down the line she just stopped fighting. She got used to a hand on the small of her back as he led her out the door, to the way his fingers brushed against her pulse-point whenever she tried to hand him anything, to Jane taking all sorts of small physical liberties she never would have even considered allowing from anyone else.

But with Jane eventually it just seemed normal.

And somewhere along the way, with all those seemingly innocent brushes and strokes, he'd learned just how she'd liked to be touched. Not all the details of course, those he'd still needed to discover (and he'd definitely made a thorough beginning of it). But the general outline he'd already had memorized. The way he'd trailed his hands up her spine, or his lips down her neck, or his fingers across her hip, or his tongue...

He'd played her like an instrument he'd started learning long ago.

But oddly enough, some of the best moments had been when he'd accidentally hit a note that was ever-so-slightly off-key. When his hands had trembled against her skin, or his breath had stuttered, or especially when she'd distracted his hands from reaching their goal using her own

And in the end he'd made her want to become tactile, to learn to play _him _better (she knew a little, but not enough, not nearly enough).

He may have had a head start, but she was a fast learner.

And she was dying to catch up.

Given the opportunity of course.

xxxxx

Jane heard her when she got to the kitchen doorway.

He turned from the stove where he was trying to get his spaghetti sauce to cooperate; he'd made a few substitutions for ingredients and he was worried it wouldn't turn out that well. But none of that seemed to matter quite as much anymore.

He smiled at her.

He'd been hoping she'd sleep a little longer, just so he could have the pleasure of waking her up again himself (he'd had several ideas about how to do that). But he found he didn't really mind her beating him to the punch.

Wearing clothes several sizes too big for her, with her hair tousled and her cheeks flushed, Lisbon was one of the loveliest things he'd ever seen. Even if she did look a little uncertain (he could appreciate that; he'd been feeling a little uncertain himself up until about ten seconds ago, before she'd padded through the doorway).

Lisbon returned his smile shyly. She couldn't help it. She'd defy any woman to keep a stern expression on their face when confronted with Patrick Jane looking casual in plaid pyjama pants and a t-shirt genuinely beaming at them.

Jane wiped his hands on a tea towel and manoeuvred around the island to meet her. "You're up," he murmured, sliding a hand along her waist, and placing a kiss near her temple.

"Mmhm," Lisbon agreed, allowing herself to relax against him. "I assume you left these out for me," she added, gesturing to her ensemble.

"Of course I did. I was just going to wake you in a minute. Dinner's almost ready," he explained.

"Dinner?" Lisbon asked softly.

"Mmhm," he hummed. "Would you like a glass of wine? I've got a nice red?"

Lisbon blinked, "Sure." A little alcohol sounded like an excellent idea all of a sudden.

Jane flashed her another smile and spun around the island, grabbing a couple of wine glasses from the cupboard and a bottle from the counter, which Lisbon couldn't help noticing was already open. She didn't comment, just took the glass he offered her a few seconds later.

She took a sip immediately, more to keep her mouth busy than anything else. She couldn't think of a single thing to say. Damn Jane for acting so normal. There were times when the man should really just be taken outside and shot.

"Do you like the wine?" Jane murmured. "It's from..."

"I don't care where it's from!" Lisbon exploded suddenly. She couldn't do this. Couldn't pretend that this was normal, that... that it was just another meal with her consultant, who actually looked vaguely startled by her outburst. She didn't care. "What is this Jane? What are we doing? What do you want? I mean, you said you wanted to talk to me. Or was that all just pretence so you could handcuff me and then..." Lisbon swallowed and trailed off. "Anyway, I have no idea what's going on. I don't know where my clothes are. I have no idea where I even _am!_ You haven't told me a damn thing. You're just standing there making dinner like nothing's out of place. Whose house is this even?"

Jane took a deep breath. He'd expected this, even as he'd hoped for another minute or two before he had to explain. This is what came of carrying out a plan backwards. And the original plan of tour, dinner, and then much later, seduction, had been flipped on its head. "I put your clothes in the washing machine not five minutes ago, after I got dinner started," Jane assured her. "I thought you might appreciate it if they were clean. Don't worry, I checked the washing instructions, and your blazer is fine. I hung it up in the closet." Actually, he'd thrown her clothing in the washing in another attempt to make it difficult for her to leave, but he wasn't going to tell her that. He'd half-expected her to try and practically fly out of the house the second she woke. The fact that she hadn't made him hopeful.

Of course, not knowing where she was may have had something to do with that too.

And he'd wanted to make her dinner. It just seemed like the right thing to do at the time, and it would give him the opportunity to explain.

Okay, really he'd just wanted to make her dinner.

He wanted to romance her a little. Just to see her face when he did it.

Still, it had just about killed him to leave her alone in bed earlier.

xxxxx

Jane had woken first. He suspected it was a combination of his insomnia, and the fact that Lisbon always pushed herself so hard during a case that she always crashed afterwards, completely exhausted.

Whatever the reason, Jane was grateful for it.

Because it meant he got to wake up with Teresa Lisbon pressed up against him, sleeping soundly.

Jane shifted slightly closer to her (not an easy task given their current position) and resisted the urge to tighten the arm wrapped around her waist draw patterns along her stomach; it might wake her.

She probably needed the rest.

And this way he got to watch her, her face mostly obscured by her hair and he pillow, her breathing deep and even. This was Teresa Lisbon completely relaxed. With him. His arm did tighten slightly around her waist then, but she didn't even stir.

His brain flashed back to earlier in the afternoon. It was one of those times he was particularly glad that his memory was so good. He never wanted to forget a minute of Teresa Lisbon struggling to divest him of his clothing, or running her fingers through his hair, or trailing kisses along shoulder. The way she'd shuddered beneath him, the way she'd whispered his name, or cried out, unable to stop herself.

But most of all, her eyes. He never wanted to forget her eyes.

He wanted to see them as they'd been, again and again and again.

And...

And he wanted to wake her.

He wanted to roll her over and kiss her until she sighed and trailed a hand up his back and tangled it in his hair like she had only an hour or so earlier.

But he didn't wake her. He wanted to do things better than that with her. And this wasn't just about the sex, though that was fantastic. This was about him wanting her, and wanting something permanent.

Besides, after handcuffing her with her own handcuffs, he figured he at least owed her _dinner_.

It was time to really resurrect the original plan.

Jane disentangled himself from her body and slid out of bed as quietly as possible, pleased when she barely stirred.

Still, before grabbing her clothing and tiptoeing out of the room, he couldn't resist placing a single kiss to her shoulder.

Because she was beautiful.

And she was in his bed.

And that was an irresistible combination.

xx

"You're in a modest bungalow a few miles northeast of the CBI building, as to who owns it, well, it's mine," Jane explained calmly. "Welcome to my house Teresa."

"Yours?" Lisbon interrupted in shock.

"Yeah," Jane acknowledged. "Now, as to the rest, that's more complicated. I _did_ want to talk to you in the park, but then I got distracted..."

"Never mind all that right now," Lisbon said quickly. The stupid handcuffs could wait until later. This was more important. "What do you mean this is _your_ house?"

Jane shifted uncomfortably. "I mean, I bought it," he said. "I figured I should have somewhere more permanent to live in Sacramento since I'm obviously going to be sticking around. And I was getting sick of the motel. The house in Malibu is too far, and anyway, there's too much... it's not... Having two houses isn't really practical... and I sold it."

If the revelation that Jane had bought a house was surprising, that was an absolute shocker for Lisbon. "What?"

"Not long after I bought this one," Jane admitted.

"You sold..." she murmured, placing a hand to her head. "Jane..."

"It was time, Teresa," he said, his voice low.

She met his eyes and he saw understanding. "How do you feel about it?" she asked softly.

"Good, surprisingly good actually," he admitted. It was a mixture of pleasure and pain of course, but overall, getting rid of the room with the sinister smile on the wall felt like releasing a weight from around his neck.

"Oh," Lisbon said, feeling a bit stupid. But she couldn't think of a single other thing _to_ say.

"Yeah."

Lisbon shook her head, trying to clear it. "I can't believe you bought a house and didn't tell me!" she said eventually. Only Jane would buy major real estate and not mention it to his colleagues.

"I wanted it to be a surprise," Jane explained.

"Oh, it's definitely that," she assured him, turning the idea over in her mind.

"I was also going to wait until some little renovations were done," Jane continued, feeling the need to justify himself to her. "But then I couldn't and I just... I _wanted_ to show someone."

That got Lisbon's attention. "Wait, you haven't shown _anyone?_ Nobody knows?"

"Apart from the workmen," Jane admitted with a shrug. Then he met her eyes. "I wanted you to be first."

He watched those eyes soften. "You really bought a house?" she asked hopefully.

"Just look around you, Lisbon," Jane said with a smirk. "This isn't a mirage. I can give you the tour after dinner if you'd like."

"Oh, you don't have to do that," she assured him quickly. She didn't want to put him out, especially if he didn't feel like the house was quite ready.

"Oh," Jane said softly, glancing away, his face falling. Lisbon suddenly realized how much he'd _wanted _to show her around. Probably wanted to show off his new possessions. And she'd shot him down.

She set down her wine and walked to the other side of the island, placing a hand on his arm. "I'd love to see it Jane, Patrick," she said with a swallow. "I really would. I didn't want to impose, or make you feel like you had to, especially if things aren't quite the way you want them yet."

His face lit up immediately and he wrapped an arm around her waist. "After dinner," he promised.

"Okay," she agreed with another shy smile.

Then he frowned.

"What is it?" Lisbon asked.

"I want you to impose," he admitted slowly, running a hand through her hair. "I want... I want," he said huskily, watching her eyes widen and hope spark up. "Oh, Teresa," he whispered, letting his forehead fall on her shoulder and nuzzling her neck.

"You really bought a house?" Lisbon whispered.

"Yes," he murmured against her neck. "I wanted to bring you here, and make you dinner, and talk... and then maybe... But things got all turned around. I wanted everything to be finished. But then you went out to dinner with that ass of a lawyer..."

"Oh, he was perfectly nice," Lisbon replied without thinking. Completely distracted, she arched against Jane, craving contact.

But her remark caught her consultant's attention. "What?" he growled, stopping his gentle ministrations and all but shoving her against the island.

"He wasn't that bad," Lisbon said slowly, a bit thrown by the sudden shift in Jane's mood.

"He was a useless, personality-less pipsqueak," Jane growled back, angling her closer against the counter.

Lisbon's eyes widened as she watched his darken. And then it hit her like a thunderbolt. Patrick Jane was _jealous_. She remembered him mentioning that he'd wanted to make her dinner, when everything was supposed to have been ready. She remembered the ridiculous insults and anger directed towards her date (and it had only been _one _date). And she remembered the way Jane had been watching her for the last week or so... He'd been planning... _something_ where she was concerned. Then those plans had been upset. She remembered his agitation, his apparently irrational behaviour. Finally, she remembered the way his voice shook and his hands trembled against her the night before. He'd claimed he'd wanted to break her control, but Lisbon suddenly realized that maybe she'd broken his long before he'd slapped the handcuffs around her wrists.

She gave a startled little gasp. Then she threw herself at him.

Wrapping her arms around his neck, she practically attacked his lips with her own.

Jane was originally carried a half a step backwards by her momentum and his own surprise, but a split second later his hands were at her waist as he hummed in surprise. He wasn't entirely sure what had prompted her sudden change in demeanour, but he did know that he really didn't care. A Teresa Lisbon throwing herself into his arms would always be welcome as far as he was concerned. Always. He trailed a hand lazily up and down her spine just the way she liked it, pleased when he heard her purr against him.

If Jane had known insulting lawyer-boy would get him this, well, he'd come up some doozies in the past week. Maybe he should share some of the others with her. That's when Jane had his own little epiphany, and he grinned against her lips. Teresa Lisbon didn't care one way or the other about the insult. She'd finally recognized his jealousy. He would have been embarrassed (probably _should_ have been embarrassed), but since _she_ clearly liked that he felt strongly enough to be jealous, Jane decided to use it.

And he realized something else, realized there was something very important that she apparently didn't know. Placing a quick kiss on her lips he pulled back slightly, all the while angling her further back against the counter. "I want you," he said his voice hot.

He knew he'd guessed correctly as he watched her eyes darken, her breathing accelerate and her arms slide farther around his neck.

"No more lawyers," he demanded, pushing her farther against the counter, and dropping his lips to her throat again.

He felt her hand tighten in his hair as she held him in place. "I don't know," she murmured. "I was thinking we could be friends... He is new in town after all..."

Now the little temptress was _provoking_ him. Jane nearly laughed. "You can have as many friends as you like Teresa Lisbon," he told her with a grin. "But I'm the only one who gets to do this," he hissed, starting at her collar bone and nuzzling his way up.

"Hmmm," Lisbon hummed when he hit the juncture of jaw-line and ear. "I'll have to think about your offer."

This time Jane did laugh. "Like hell you will," he said, his eyes twinkling into hers. He gently tipped her chin up with one finger and kissed her more thoroughly.

They were distracted several minutes later by the rattling lid of a pot whose water had started to boil.

Lisbon giggled as Jane cursed under his breath and turned back towards his neglected cooking. Lucky he'd picked something simple.

"Oh, think this is funny do you?" he asked over his shoulder.

She nodded smugly. "Can I help with anything?"

One corner of his mouth turned up in an almost boyish smile. "No," he said firmly. "_I_ am making _you_ dinner, so _you_," He explained taking her arm and leading her back around the island. "Can sit down on this stool, drink your wine and keep me company."

Lisbon rolled her eyes. "Can I?" she asked rhetorically.

Jane nodded. "And I think it's best if you stay on that side of the island, just until the actual cooking is done. Wouldn't you agree?"

That earned him a genuine smile as Lisbon did as he asked and settled onto her stool, smirking superiorly at him the entire time. "Will you at least tell me what we're having?" she asked.

Jane shrugged. "Well, given that we just got back from a case I had to improvise with what was in my cupboards."

"Can't possibly be as bad as what's usually in mine," Lisbon interrupted.

Jane smirked. "Or not in yours," he corrected. "Well, anyway, it's still not what I _wanted_ to make you, but I thought spaghetti and tomato sauce, if you've no objections."

"No," Lisbon said with a shake of her head, as she took a sip of her wine. "That sounds lovely," she admitted. Jane was actually cooking her dinner. She'd figured that was what he was doing when she'd smelled food in the bedroom, but this was... She was wearing his clothes and he was cooking her dinner. No one had cooked her dinner other than one of her own brothers in years, and even that was rare. Sure, she'd been wined and dined at fancy restaurants before, but sitting in Jane's kitchen drinking a glass of wine in sweatpants was different, cozier.

Jane _wanted_ her. And obviously not in a one-night stand, or even a casual fling kind of a way. He was wining and dining her. Okay, it was unorthodox to say the least, and had involved kidnapping and handcuffs, but still. It was_ romantic._ She... she genuinely wasn't quite sure what it meant.

If it meant she could have the Jane who bought her flowers to apologize and dragged her to movies when she needed a break _and_ this Jane who seduced her and made her dinner... Well, that might be okay. Maybe. She hadn't been in a genuine relationship in god only knows how long. Oh she dated from time to time (and less frequently now than she used to), but it never seemed to feel quite right.

And this... this was _Jane._ It was _crazy_.

But it didn't feel wrong.

"Something wrong?" Jane asked, in an odd parody of her thoughts.

Lisbon looked up, and shook her head.

He frowned. "Come on, Teresa. I know you better than that."

She shrugged. "Just trying to remember the last time someone made me dinner," she said eventually. "It was so long ago I'm not sure I _can_ remember."

"Probably about the last time I made someone dinner," Jane admitted softly.

Her fingers tightened around her wineglass. _Oh._ "Oh," she said inadequately.

Jane walked over with two plates. "Yeah," he said. "Well, for better or worse it's ready. Hope you enjoy it. Sorry it's not..."

"It's perfect," Lisbon said quickly. It _was_ perfect. It was better than a gourmet meal, with all the fuss and planning. This was Jane throwing something together after a particularly bad week, because he wanted to have a meal with her.

Why did this keep feeling like it might work? They were both going to be absolutely _terrible_ at this, for different reasons.

"You sure?" Jane asked, setting the plates down and wiping his hands. He really had wanted to make something a little more ambitious than spaghetti.

The second his hands were free Lisbon kissed him.

After a few seconds she pulled away, and sat down demurely on the chair he'd pulled out for her earlier.

"Aren't you going to sit down Patrick?" she asked innocently.

Jane blinked at her for a moment. "Of course," he said, pulling out his own chair.

Lisbon took a moment to appreciate the smell of the spaghetti. "I'm starving," she admitted. "And I definitely wouldn't have been making anything like this for myself."

"Soup or take out?" Jane asked. He knew her eating habits.

She shrugged. "Probably soup," she admitted. "It was a long case."

"Yeah," Jane admitted.

Lisbon frowned for a second. "But I don't want to talk about that right now," she exclaimed suddenly. She didn't want to ruin their meal with death and tragedy. She deserved a reprieve. They both did. "Let's talk about something else. What did you want to talk to me about earlier?" she asked.

"When?" Jane wondered.

"In the car," she clarified. "Before..."

"It's kind of a moot point now," Jane deflected.

"Jane..." she said in warning.

"I'll tell you later," he promised. "After dinner."

"So what are we going to talk about now then?" Lisbon asked with a laugh.

"What would _you_ like to talk about?" he wondered.

She smiled, inspiration suddenly striking. "Tell me about buying this house," she ordered.

Jane smiled back, pleased, and only too happy to comply.

xxxxx

After dinner, Jane grabbed the plates, rinsed them and put them in the dishwasher. Then he poured them both more wine. At her frown he sighed, "It's your third in almost as many hours, Lisbon," he reminded her. "But if you like, we can switch to water."

After a moment she relaxed her shoulders and shook her head gently. "No," she said. "It's fine. And it'd be a shame to let good wine go to waste."

"Do you want any dessert?" he asked.

"You have dessert?" she asked in surprise. He raised an eyebrow in question. "I thought this was a little more un-planned than that," she admitted.

Jane shrugged. "It was," he admitted. "But there's still Mayan chocolate ice cream in the freezer." He'd bought it on a whim when he saw it in the grocery store a week ago. He'd been thinking of her.

Lisbon froze. "I was going to have that on my couch tonight," she admitted.

Jane smirked. He'd known it was her favourite. "I'll get the bowls."

"No," she said, grabbing his arm to stop him. "Not right now. I'm too full. Maybe later."

Jane agreed, his smile suddenly excited. "Alright! Then how about a tour?"

She couldn't help laughing at his enthusiasm.

xxxxx

TBC

One more after this (I think). Hopefully by the weekend again.


	7. Chapter 6

A/N: Alright, here it is. The last chapter. I apologize for the slight delay, but I wasn't particularly inspired to write this weekend. Still, I wasn't hideously slow or anything. I hope you enjoy it. And thanks to everyone who took the time to review my little fic.

Fluffety fluffety fluff! (I give you fair warning.)

xxxxx

Chapter 6

xxxxx

After putting the dishes in the dishwasher and piling the pots in the sink, stating they could be washed later, Jane led Lisbon on a tour of his house.

It was charming. It really was.

And she wasn't talking about the bungalow (though come to think of it, that was charming too). No, Lisbon was referring to Jane himself.

He was so excited, so pleased; even he couldn't hide it. His enthusiasm leaked out every so often and she was revelling in it.

She wasn't used to seeing Jane so genuinely happy about something.

After all, his demeanour was usually fairly neutral. You could push his buttons certainly, make him angry or vindictive. Lisbon had definitely seen several examples of _negative _emotions from Jane. But it was often quite difficult to fluster her consultant, make him irritated or excited, or anything other than amused in a detached sort of a way. Even when he _did_ seem to look pleased, it was usually in an impersonal sort of way in that he found the situation amusing, but wasn't really connected to it at all.

He usually hid the extent of his feelings carefully, unless you knew what to look for.

But apparently not today. Lisbon had gotten a bit of a demonstration of that fact when she'd seen his jealousy earlier (not to mention the attraction between the two of them). Apparently Jane had decided to let himself feel. Personally.

And he wanted to share it all with _her_.

Lisbon let herself get swept up with the experience. She found herself ducking down to look in cabinets, turning on lights to best admire paint colours, testing the water pressure in the bathroom or the smoothness of the sliding doors and commenting on new pieces of furniture and their placement in the room (she agreed with Jane; the overstuffed armchair in the living room really needed to be moved to the far corner).

She admired the new trim along the kitchen ceiling, the size of the bedroom, the set-up of the kitchen and the comfort level of his couch. Jane was so excited she forgot to be sparing in her praise, even sharing her positive opinion of his sheets unasked (a review which earned her twinkling eyes and a firm kiss).

When she suggested ripping out the existing (and ancient) coat rod in the hallway closet and replacing it with one of the new closet organizers, Jane had looked at her like she was a genius.

In fact, the only thing that he seemed genuinely disappointed about was that everything wasn't quite done. She commiserated with him about the state of the second bathroom in the basement, and agreed that a new carpet in the back hall was a must. But then she pointed out that everything else was so lovely it didn't make all that much difference. Still, he was irritated.

Lisbon threaded an arm through his. "Jane," she admonished lightly. "I'm pretty sure you've managed to make your house more settled in a few months than I have in years. You even bought stuff to hang on the walls."

"I still need more paintings though," he murmured, frowning slightly.

"And you have plenty of time to do that," she promised him.

Jane looked doubtful.

Lisbon laughed, she couldn't help it. Then she just leaned against his shoulder while he stared at one of the blank walls in his living room, murmuring about colour schemes and what size of picture (or possible other type of wall hanging) was necessary. His mutterings were kind of relaxing.

Oddly enough, while revelling in all of Jane's enthusiasm, Lisbon didn't realize once how comfortable _she _was.

xxxxx

Lisbon wouldn't, maybe even _couldn't_, stop touching him.

Brushing his arm, wrapping an arm around his waist, that sort of thing. When he crouched down she'd place a hand on his shoulder to steady herself as she crouched too. She leaned against him slightly when he showed her something. Or the one wonderful time when he'd already been crouched down, displaying his shelving space and she'd absently started running a hand through his hair.

She seemed to particularly like doing that.

Now she was tucked against his side, listening to him complain about the bare walls in his living room. Or rather, it was more likely that she wasn't listening to him. Jane glanced down at her, snuggled against his shoulder. The woman was definitely lost in her own thoughts. Her fingers were trailing absently from his arm across to his hip and back again. He wasn't even sure if she knew she was doing it.

It made Jane realize how much he'd missed being _touched._ And not the odd awkward hug from a stranger that he still received in the most unexpected of circumstances, not even a pat on the back from Rigsby or a swat in the arm from her. Which he liked too, he did. But that wasn't like this.

This was personal, affectionate, deliberate (though perhaps unconsciously so). And this was familiar, and implied so much more.

Jane definitely liked it. And he was relieved that Lisbon seemed as desperate to touch him as he was to touch her.

His desire where she was concerned unnerved him slightly. It wasn't often that he lost control _at all_, and the woman next to him had been making him practically throb with need lately. He was still a little bewildered by how easily it had been to let his libido take control of the situation earlier. Not that Lisbon had objected, but still... It should have been more disconcerting, or at least overwhelming, than it was.

He drew her closer against him, slipping an arm around her waist.

Lisbon stiffened briefly, apparently realizing what she was doing. After a few seconds she started relaxing slowly against him again.

"So, what's the verdict?" Jane asked lightly.

"Hm?" Lisbon hummed.

"What do you think?" he clarified.

"It's lovely Jane," she said sincerely, reassuring him for what now felt like the tenth time in an hour. "It really is."

Jane puffed up slightly in pride. He'd _known_ she'd like it, although he figured at least half of that was to do less with the features in the house and more to do with the fact that he'd bought a house at all. "Do you want to see the garden?" he asked, attempting to sound casual.

Lisbon smiled up at him, seeing through the act right away. She agreed easily, unwilling to give up this happy Jane quite yet. "Sure, but isn't it getting a bit dark?"

"The sun hasn't quite set yet," he argued. "Between that and the lights on the back porch, I'm sure it'll be alright," he told her. "Although, I don't want to excite your anticipation. Half of it still needs to be ripped out."

"In the same way that this house isn't quite ready?" Lisbon asked dryly.

"It _isn't_ quite ready," Jane insisted. "There are still things that need to be done."

"Minor things," Lisbon reminded him.

"Still," Jane said. "And the things that need to be done in the garden aren't minor. Trust me."

"Okay," Lisbon said. "But I reserve the right to for my own opinion when I see it. Let's go, before it really is too dark."

xxxxx

Despite Lisbon's initial scepticism, the garden was a bit of a mess. Jane had cleared out a lot of unwanted plants, and the result was a lot of empty space. Though there were still nice features. The previous owners had planted a few neglected perennials, some of which were in bloom. And a neighbour had assured Jane that there were tulips in one corner. Plus there was a trellis covered with vines next to the back door.

"Sounds like you've done a fair bit of work," Lisbon told him, walking down a newly cleared path.

Jane shrugged. "I like it," he admitted. "It's relaxing."

"Doesn't really sound it," Lisbon told him. "But then, I've never been much of a gardener."

Jane twined his fingers through hers. "I'm sure you'd like it if you tried."

"Maybe," she said with a shrug. "I think I'll stick to the shooting range."

"Hmm," Jane said, before changing the subject. "Still need to figure out what to put in the big empty spaces. I was thinking maybe a few vegetables in the one corner, some sort of ornamental tree over there, but I'm not sure about the corner by the deck," he admitted. "I was thinking something with more colour."

"You could always plant rhododendrons," Lisbon suggested without thinking. "They're nice when they're in flower."

Jane glanced at her. The suggestion had come apparently out of the blue, especially for someone who said they didn't garden. Then he noticed Lisbon had tensed up again, and he decided not to pry. "That sounds like a good idea; I'll think about it."

Lisbon shook herself slightly. "Don't feel obligated or anything," she murmured.

"Nonsense," Jane said briskly. "I have no idea what to plant there. You like rhododendrons. They'll be colourful, and about the right size. Why wouldn't I plant one, or even two? Problem solved."

Lisbon shook her head. "You're ridiculously impulsive sometimes," she told him.

"I can plan too," he defended. "Besides, sometimes spur of the moment works for me," he reminded her, flashing back to some of the highlights of his earlier impulsive behaviour. He tipped her chin up gently to kiss her.

"Patrick? Is that you?" a voice interrupted them, far too soon in his opinion.

Still, he smiled and turned towards the noise. "Of course it is, Barbara," he replied.

Lisbon looked at him in confusion. Jane grinned cheerfully in reply.

"I thought I heard something," an elderly woman from the next yard said as she walked over. She paused when she saw Lisbon. "I'm so sorry. I'm interrupting. You have company."

Jane started assuring the woman that she wasn't interrupting and Lisbon told herself not to feel self-conscious, unfortunately remembering her current attire for the first time since she'd come outside.

"It's fine," Jane said for the third time in sixty seconds. "I was giving a tour of my garden to..." he trailed off, suddenly unsure of how to refer to the woman next to him.

His neighbour had no such issues. She walked over to Lisbon holding out her hand, her smile friendly and nonjudgmental. "Oh! You must be Teresa! Patrick's told me so much about you. I'm Barbara Dunham, Patrick's neighbour. It's lovely to finally meet you."

Lisbon was startled, but she shook the woman's hand. "Nice to meet you too. Teresa Lisbon," she confirmed introducing herself with a smile and a sidelong glance at Jane, highly entertained to discover that he looked slightly embarrassed. Her grin turned wicked. "I didn't realize I was such an exciting topic of conversation, Mrs. Dunham. I hope it was at least mostly good things."

"Oh please, call me Barbara," the woman told her. "I already half feel like I know you. I'm going to call you Teresa right off. Like I said, Patrick talks about you all time. I knew we'd cross paths eventually."

Lisbon tried not to laugh at the expression on Jane's face. A self-conscious Jane was rare, but now his expression was bordering on panic, and she planned on enjoying every second of it

"You're almost exactly as I pictured you," Jane's neighbour continued. "Oh and _of course_ everything I heard was good. What else would it be with this one as my source?" Then she turned towards Jane. "She's just as lovely as you described Patrick, though I can hardly believe all your tales of tackling combined with a kind of fierce authority."

"Umm..." Jane and Lisbon both said at the same time. Lisbon wasn't sure exactly which stories Jane had told his neighbour, but given what had happened over the past decade, she rather suspected they were all true. Jane was just wondering the quickest way to end the conversation and whisk Lisbon back inside.

Barbara Dunham was a rather perceptive woman, who had a healthy streak of nosiness (though always with the best intentions) and she picked up on their hesitation. She decided to save them from answering her. "Perhaps I shouldn't have doubted him though," she said slowly. "Which means that you're a quite a bit feistier than you look right now. Although, given that you deal with this one that isn't all that surprising."

"Lisbon's feistiness predates my arrival in her life," Jane assured his neighbour.

"I get the job done," Lisbon said with a shrug. "That's all. Even if that does involve wrangling wayward consultants," she added with a smirk and another glance at Jane.

Jane gave a poor impression of looking offended, until Lisbon nudged him playfully in the shoulder. Then he settled into a more cheerful expression, slipping a hand briefly onto the small of her back.

"Anyway," Barbara said suddenly. "I didn't mean to interrupt your evening. I was just wondering if you were finished with my Phillips head screwdriver, Patrick. I could use it tonight."

Jane's smile got slightly wider. After all, once he gave Barbara her screwdriver back then theoretically she would leave again once she had it. It wasn't that he didn't like his neighbour, quite the opposite, but he had other plans for his evening. "Oh, yes," he assured her. "I finished with it a couple of days ago, but then I got distracted with work and forgot to return it. I'll go get it."

"Patrick apparently doesn't own a screwdriver," his neighbour explained to Lisbon.

"Which most of the time isn't really an issue," Jane defended, upon seeing Lisbon's incredulous look. "Until you want to adjust the height of the shelves in a bookshelf."

"I told you I would do that for you Patrick," Barbara reminded him.

"I know," Jane agreed. "But whatever you might think I am perfectly capable of using a screwdriver to adjust the height of my shelves."

"And how long did it take you to get them straight?" Barbara asked curiously.

"That's not the point," Jane said quickly.

"As I thought," the woman tutted with a slight shake of her head.

Lisbon laughed, then noticing Jane looked rather embarrassed decided to take pity on him, and looped her arm around him, giving him a comforting pat on the shoulder.

Jane relaxed against her, briefly dropping an arm around her shoulder.

The exchange was subtle, but Jane's neighbour definitely noticed, if her indulgent smile was anything to go by.

"Well, I'll just go grab that screwdriver for you," Jane said, reluctant to disentangle himself from his companion quite yet.

"Normally it wouldn't matter," Barbara explained apologetically to Lisbon. "But I need a Phillips head to finish off a cabinet I promised a client for the weekend."

"Barbara refurbishes old furniture," Jane explained. "The hutch in my living room is actually one of hers."

"Really?" Lisbon asked.

"Yes," Barbara assured her. "Bit of a retirement project to keep myself from going stir-crazy. If you're in the market for furniture you should drop by my garage sometime."

"Oh," Lisbon said, "Well..." She wasn't exactly into home decor after all.

Jane grinned. "Teresa's a bit of a minimalist when it comes to decorating."

"To each their own," Barbara said with a shrug. "But if you ever change your mind..."

"I'll let you know," Lisbon promised.

"If you'll excuse me ladies," Jane said, finally slipping out of Lisbon's half-embrace. "I'll be right back."

The two women watched him go.

"He is a charming devil," Barbara remarked absently.

"He's something alright," Lisbon said dryly.

Barbara smiled, deciding to help her newest neighbour along, "Well, he's certainly a helpful neighbour," she assured Lisbon. "Always coming over, humouring an old woman. Sometimes a job needs a second set of hands, and Patrick's been lovely for that. Plus he's never too busy for a cup of tea on the porch. And he makes lovely chocolate chip cookies. I was never a very good cook myself."

"Jane bakes?" Lisbon asked, surprised.

Barbara smiled. "Oh yes," she assured the younger woman. "You must ask him about it sometime. It's rather a handy skill in a man."

"I'm sure it is," Lisbon agreed absently.

Jane's neighbour nodded, "Though I'm sure he's not always so helpful."

"No," Lisbon agreed. "_Helpful_ isn't exactly the word I'd use to describe Patrick a lot of the time."

"I suppose you're right. He certainly looks like he could create more than his fair share of trouble," Barbara admitted. "I can't imagine working with him is always easy," she said fishing for information.

"I guess I've gotten used to it over the years," Lisbon admitted. "At least he's not boring."

"Not to mention he's crazy about you," Barbara added. "In spite of his demons."

That startled Lisbon.

Jane's neighbour hurried to put her at ease. "I don't know what his demons are," she admitted. "He's never told me, and I'm certainly not asking you to either. But it was obvious from almost the first day I met him that he'd been through something. You can see it in his eyes sometimes, though not so much lately. For such a cheerful person, Patrick's very rarely completely at ease."

Lisbon stared at the woman standing next to her; just who was this woman? "No, that's true," she said eventually.

"I meant what I said earlier," Barbara added. "He really does talk about you all the time. I doubt he even realizes he's doing it. So I _do_ feel like I know you. Though I realize you probably haven't heard that much about me."

"Well, Jane did want to keep his new house a surprise," Lisbon murmured. "But, maybe we'll see more of each other now."

"Be good to him," the other woman murmured back, as Jane returned.

Lisbon glanced over sharply, trying to control her blush.

"Here's your screwdriver Barb," he said, handing the tool to his neighbour. "How are things out here?"

"Teresa and I have just been getting acquainted," Barb assured him.

Lisbon chuckled when she saw a flash of panic run across her consultant's face. "Don't worry Patrick," she cooed. "I didn't have enough time to ask about any home improvement disasters."

"We'll leave that for the second meeting," Barbara assured an even more concerned-looking Jane.

"Oh wonderful," Jane said.

"Anyway," Barbara said. "I've got what I came for, so I'll leave you two to enjoy the rest of your evening. It was lovely meeting you Teresa."

"You too," Lisbon said.

"Good night Patrick," Barbara said with a pat on the arm. "Try not to do anything too foolish would you? I highly doubt that you deserve her."

"Your instincts always were good," Jane replied, giving his neighbour a kiss on the cheek.

Barbara waved self-consciously at him. "Oh, well, I guess you're not such a bad sort," she admitted begrudgingly. "Have a good night."

The two CBI employees watched her go.

"How long do you think it took her to think up collecting a screwdriver as an excuse to come over and introduce herself? Jane murmured.

Lisbon looked up at him with a questioning smile.

"Oh come on," Jane added. "I'm sure she has more than one screwdriver."

"Says the man who has none," Lisbon interrupted.

"That's different," Jane said with a wave of his hand. "Carpentry isn't exactly a hobby of mine."

"I'll say," Lisbon shot back.

Jane grinned at her. "_Anyway_, Barbara's been not-so-secretly dying to meet you for weeks now. She's been dropping hints that I'm sure _she_ believed were subtle..."

Lisbon laughed. "Well, then I guess my meeting her was inevitable. She doesn't seem like the type of woman who gives up easily."

"I wouldn't bet against her," Jane admitted.

"I like her," Lisbon added.

"Of course you do," Jane said softly.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Lisbon asked looking up at him.

"Nothing," Jane insisted. "Just that I always thought you would."

"Though, I admit, I would have preferred just a little advanced notice," she admitted. "I would have considered combing my hair at the very least."

"Your hair looks lovely," Jane assured her. "Besides, I was far too distracted by another woman to remember my elderly neighbour."

"Oh?" Lisbon asked innocently. "Anyone I know?"

Jane chuckled, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Somehow I think you know _exactly_ who I'm talking about, dear," he said, leaning his forehead against hers.

Lisbon glanced down. "Now that you mention it," she said slowly, her heart thumping in her chest. "Barbara seemed to imply that _my_ name came up a fair bit in conversation," Lisbon added, trailing a finger across his chest.

Jane angled himself closer to her. "Well, who else was I going to talk about?" he asked against her ear.

"Cho?" Lisbon suggested breathlessly.

Jane chuckled. "Somehow his name never really came up."

"Mmm. Really?" she wondered, glancing up at him.

Jane's smile was devastating. "His smile's not as pretty as yours is."

"Cho's smile is perfectly nice," Lisbon said loyally.

"Yeah, and we're all lucky enough to get to see it least annually," Jane agreed.

Lisbon laughed, and looped her arms around his neck.

She tilted her head up at him. "You really talked about me that much?"

Jane bent down to kiss her temple. He'd never thought he'd live to see a day when Teresa Lisbon was fishing for his compliments, but it was an endearing sight. "To be honest," he whispered. "I didn't notice that I talked about you excessively, but it doesn't surprise me that I did. I've become rather fond of you over the years, sweetheart."

"And the best way you could think of to show that affection was to kidnap and handcuff me?" she wondered, toying with the hair on the back of his neck.

"Well..." Jane said slowly.

"It was ridiculous, Jane," Lisbon admonished affectionately.

"Yet it seems to have worked out in the end," Jane reminded her. "And I'm fairly certain that you didn't dislike it."

She swatted him, and tried to hide her blush.

"Besides," Jane added. "Handcuffs weren't my original plan. And I do believe that I've already told you that."

"Which reminds me, what were you going to talk to me about in the car earlier?" Lisbon asked. "You promised to tell me later."

"I was going to tell you that I couldn't get you out of my head, and outline the numerous ways that I was infinitely better than your little namby-pamby lawyer," Jane said bluntly.

Lisbon's breath caught in her throat. "Really?"

"Oh yes," he assured her, directing them back towards the house. "I've spent the better part of a week hating that man, Teresa."

"Patrick," she whispered.

"I like the way you say that," he admitted.

"Do you?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Is that all you like?" Lisbon wondered before she could help herself.

"You know it isn't; now you're really fishing," he told her

"And if I am?" she asked breathlessly.

Jane took one look at her shining eyes and gave in. "Then I think you should know that I'm completely and utterly besotted," he told her.

She bit her lip, "Besotted, huh?"

"Mmhm. I want you," he added, ducking her into a dark corner by the back stoop and kissing her forehead, moving to her eyes when they fluttered shut, then her cheeks, before hovering above her lips.

She sighed, eyes still closed. "Good."

He grinned. "Glad you approve."

"My approval's rarely stopped you in the past," Lisbon reminded him.

"Yes, but this time it is rather crucial," Jane pointed out. "And you're not as tough as you like everyone to think, Teresa Lisbon."

"Says the man who can barely adjust the height of his own bookshelves," Lisbon murmured.

"Says the woman who still isn't completely unpacked," Jane reminded her.

"It's getting better," she defended.

"Yeah, in another three years the boxes might be completely gone," Jane said dryly.

"Shut up," she ordered, sneaking a kiss.

"Yes ma'am," he agreed.

"Oh, if only it was that easy," Lisbon joked.

Jane grinned, "You'd hate it if it was."

Lisbon made a sound of frustration before grabbing him and pulling him closer. "Maybe I should go have a chat with Barbara," she said huskily when she finally pulled her lips form his. "Find out _exactly_ what you've been saying about me. Since your memory is conveniently imperfect. I'm sure she'd be _more_ than happy to fill me in."

"You're enjoying this a bit too much," Jane growled. It had been a long time since he'd been ganged up on by women.

"No," Lisbon said with a shake of her head. "I'm enjoying this just enough."

Jane spun her further away from the door, out of the porch light (and any neighbour's prying eyes). He pushed her backwards until she hit the trellis.

"Is this part of the tour?" Lisbon asked with a giggle, glancing at the clematis attempting to grow beside her.

"Only for privileged guests," Jane assured her.

Lisbon smirked. "Should I warn Cho in case he comes to call?"

"I can assure you that I have no intention of showing Cho the inner workings of my trellis," Jane said dryly.

They both paused. Lisbon burst into laughter.

"That sounded far less strange in my head," Jane admitted.

"I'm sure most things do," Lisbon agreed.

"Hey!" Jane said. "Be nice."

"I'm just saying..." she teased, enjoying the familiarity of it.

"Hush, woman!" he growled.

Lisbon's eyes lit up. "Make me."

Jane eased her back against the vines again and complied. He could see that keeping his hands off of her might prove difficult. It was probably a good thing she was far too responsible to allow it in the office. Because the woman was, quite frankly, delicious.

"Jane," Lisbon murmured after a minute. "Patrick..."

"Hmm?" he wondered idly. He was really okay with not talking right now.

But apparently Lisbon wasn't. She pushed lightly against his shoulders, refusing to let herself be distracted by the sight of a dishevelled Patrick Jane who apparently wanted nothing more than to kiss her. "I..." she stuttered.

Realizing this was important to her, Jane pulled back slightly, using the distance to appreciate the attractiveness of an aroused Teresa Lisbon.

"I..." Lisbon said again. "You know I... I care about you. I just... Oh god." She buried her head in his chest.

His eyes softened. "Oh Teresa," he whispered.

"I just, I never thought you'd ever really want to date again," came her muffled explanation. "So it didn't occur to me that... I didn't even really think about..."

"Well, I was a bit surprised by that myself," Jane admitted. "But it turns out even I can move on."

"You just never seem all that interested in the women who throw themselves at you at least once a case," Lisbon justified.

"Because I wasn't interested in _them_," Jane explained. It was true. He hadn't been interested in any women seriously since his wife had died, and by the time he'd started thinking about moving on at least half his brain had been all wrapped up in Lisbon before the other half even realized. No one else had stood a chance.

"Oh," Lisbon sighed..

"And I guess I just figured that if you were indifferent to me, you'd have punched me way before now," Jane added.

"Well, that's certainly true," she agreed, pulling him back towards her.

Jane was more than willing to comply.

"You drive me crazy," Lisbon growled.

"Good," Jane told her, thrilled with the way the garden tour was ending.

Especially when he felt her lips against his ear.

"Want you too," she murmured.

That was when Lisbon felt herself being shoved roughly against the clematis again.

And there was yet another delay before either one of them spoke again.

"Stay," Jane whispered hoarsely, finally managing to tear his mouth away from hers.

Lisbon's eyes widened. Truthfully, she hadn't even really thought about leaving anytime soon, but she wasn't about to tell _him_ that. He'd be insufferable. So she pretended to consider his offer.

Jane's eyes darkened. He'd convince her not to leave. He was sure he could. He let his lips trail down the now delightfully familiar path of her neck. "You don't even have to go into the office tomorrow morning," he reminded her.

"I know," she whispered, holding his head in place against her pulse point. "I have conditions," she panted after a minute.

Jane breathed a sigh of relief. "I'll make you breakfast tomorrow," he promised. Quite frankly, he'd assumed that went without saying. For a start, he knew how Lisbon felt about her coffee. Also, he _liked _the idea of cooking for her while she milled about his kitchen again. He'd really liked that. His larder may have been running low, but he was pretty sure he had the ingredients for pancakes. He wondered idly if Barbara had a spare pint of strawberries she wouldn't mind parting with for a good cause.

Lisbon laughed. "That wasn't one of them, but I'll look forward to that," she told him.

Jane raised his eyebrows.

Lisbon told herself not to blush. "It turns out Casablanca was actually part of a classic film series that the Empire was having," she explained, looking up at him hopefully.

Jane grinned, though he was somewhat confused. He'd rather planned on taking her out repeatedly. Did she still not understand? "Of course I'll take you to the movies. What part of '_I want you_' are you having troubles with, Teresa?"

She buried her head in his shoulder, and he felt her hands sneak underneath his t-shirt. "I was just checking," she admitted, right before sweeping her tongue along his collar bone.

"I'll take you to as many movies as you want," he promised, one of his hands hooking around her thigh and wrapping it around his own, wondering just how dark this corner of his garden _was_. "All of them if you like."

Lisbon rolled her eyes. "Let's try for as many as possible," she suggested. "Provided we're in town, and they're not showing something one of us happens to hate."

In his current position Jane couldn't really see himself turning down dinner and a movie with his Teresa for such a silly reason as the movie being terrible, but he didn't bother to tell her that. "Deal," he agreed, sealing it with a kiss. "Do you have any other conditions?"

Lisbon looked up at him considering. "I don't want to wake up alone in a strange bed tomorrow," she said dryly, a hint of genuine accusation in her tone.

"Technically it wouldn't be a strange bed, since you've been in it already," Jane pointed out.

She shot him a glare he had no trouble interpreting, as she shifted away from him.

He pouted before he could help it. The woman was teasing him. Though, come to think of it, he supposed he _might_ deserve it.

Lisbon chuckled at his expression.

"I promise you won't," he told her, reaching for her again. After the struggle tearing himself away from a sleeping Teresa Lisbon earlier, Jane genuinely didn't think he'd be able to do it twice in a row.

"See that you don't," Lisbon ordered. If she was doing this, she wanted to do it right. And that included something more than waking up alone in a bed with no idea what was going on. Even she, who was admittedly terrible at relationships, knew that wasn't a good sign. Not usually at least.

"I will," Jane assured her, finally deciding to just pull her out of the clematis (now slightly crushed) and back towards the house.

"And no more handcuffing," Lisbon added as she followed him.

Jane turned towards her, a hint of disappointment on his face. He opened the door for her, whispering his question as she walked past. "What if I ask first?"

Lisbon ducked into the house with a seductive smile. "We'll see," she promised.

It took less than half a second for him to chase after her.

He wasn't anywhere near ready to let her out of his sight, not yet at least. He was enjoying this too much.

They both were.

xxxxx

The end

Yes, I know. It's very sad that it is the end. But nonetheless it is. I'm not ruling out writing a oneshot or two in this universe at some point, but for the time being, we're done. I hope you enjoyed it.


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